Back Up Against The WallStrip Search
by JakeDanielRoss
Summary: You asked for a sequel,so here it is. Will she kill him or just maim him? Or maybe she will realize that hes grown on her just a little bit.Boots,beer,brawls and hopefully humor.No Beta, guaranteed grammar to give you fits and redneck spelling abounds.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Here is the beginning of the sequel. Let me know what you think. **

There were drawers under my couch. I could see the edge of them peeking out as I walked through the door in the wee hours of the morning. I had no idea why there would be drawers under my couch, but I guess they made as much sense as the dirty diaper on the coffee table along with the boots that were supposed to be on the back porch, but instead were currently unleashing their funk that rivaled that of the diaper, upon my living room.

Had some communal boy nakedness gone on in my living room? Daughter was gone off to tour a college with her friends, so I knew she had nothing to do with the fuckery that had obviously gone on. If the Captain and J.D. were involved, then me and the young rock star were going to have to have a chat about what was going on around my child, after all…I didn't need anymore psychological scars inflicted on him that I had already done.

Dropping my gear in the mud room, I figured it was probably best I not be armed when I encountered whatever had required him to leave his drawers under the couch. I was tired as hell, damp from the never-ending rain, grumpy and really not in the mood to deal with whatever insanity had gone on, but I also couldn't stand the extraneous crap making my house smell like the monkey house at the zoo.

I stripped down myself,( keeping my own damn drawers on), and wandered around picking up after my over grown problem child. Diaper in the trash, drawers in the laundry, boots on the porch, and a half dozen beer bottles in the trash as well.

He had been drinking? That was new. He usually didn't drink when he was home alone with the baby, especially not a six pack. That did not make me happy at all.

Things had been interesting over the last few months. I was still working on learning to deal with having a young, barely housebroken man in my house pretty much constantly on top of a baby and the accompanying drama, and he was getting used to living with all the excitement that came from living with me and a baby and my daughter as well as a bunch of cops that tended to wander in and out with guns and all kinds of things like tasers that they found funny to threaten to test on him.

Luckily, he still hadn't been spotted yet by any fans so we had relative peace and quiet outside of all the normal commotion that went on in my life. He stayed close to home and took care of Spence when I was working, and that gave him time to bond with his son as well as work on his music and trying to figure out what the heck he was going to be when he grew up.

He seemed a bit mopey from time to time, and I had no idea why other than he had left behind the life of a wild and free young man and had pretty much over night become a house husband,(shudder at the mere thought of that word), but I hadn't forced him into it, Hell! I had strongly tried to discourage it if ya'll will remember.

He had been doing pretty good at keeping himself entertained, learning to navigate the computer and Twitter. I was shocked to learn he was about the only 20 something year old man I had ever met that didn't know a computer from a hole in the ground. He spent a few weeks with daughter coaching him and nagging him to Tweet his rapidly growing following of minions, so he seemed to be pretty happy.

His band had come up and he had played a few nearby clubs and had even gone down to L.A. and shot a video or two and promoted his stuff, so it seemed all was well, but I knew he was getting pressured to tour with them. Hell, I encouraged it. The baby was growing like a weed and was happy, they were bonded and it was evident they loved each other, I thought it would do him some good to go do his thing for a little bit, but he seemed to just be stuck in a rut.

Walking down the hall I found more beer bottles and now im starting to get pissed off. Where is the baby? Where is the boy? Why is there crap all over the house? Checking in Spence's room I find that he is in his crib, but the side is down. He could have easily stood up and fallen out. Now I am really torked off. Someone is getting their ass handed to them.

I put the side up and make sure he is settled fine and then after I shut the door to damper the coming storm, I go looking for the boy. I count a total of 13 beer bottles by the time I reach the bedroom. I stop at the door and go back to the living room. The old me would have gone in and just killed him, the new me picks up her cell phone and calls the Captain.

"Do you know what time it is? What has he done and is he still alive?" He knows me well.

I ask, "Were you or J.D. over here tonight?" I hear Cullen sigh, I know he's debating what to say. If he gives the wrong answer, he's in trouble too.

"We were there for a few hours and had a few beers with him. He was in an odd place."

What the hell do you mean, "An odd place? Did you and him…?"

Cullen laughed, "See! I knew you suspected he swung from both sides of that tree! But no, not that odd of a place. He's got the wanderlust like J.D. told you he would get and its tearing him up. He doesn't want to leave you guys but not doing his thing is eating him up. He needs to go and you are gonna have to kick that alley cat out the door and make him go for a bit before he gets all fat and useless."

So I am going to have to be the bad guy and do the right thing? I was feeling sick inside. I may bitch and gripe inside my head about my alley cat that takes up half my bed and always seems to end up laying half on me by morning, but I am used to him by now and Im kinda protective and attached to him. He doesn't take care of himself when hes on the road.

"You are mighty damn quiet. You got attached to that boy didn't you, Hard Ass?" All that talk of not wanting a keeper and neutering him, and him being nothing but a pain in the ass kid, and you have gotten attached. You have a link, he will come back and not just for that kid, but hes got to run for a bit."

I knew what I had to do, I had to send him packing even if it meant he took my heart with him for a bit.

I slammed open the door of the bedroom and said in my most terrifying command voice, "I AM DONE BABY SITTIING A PETER PAN SYNDROME, IRRESPONIBLE, PUNK ASS THAT CANT EVEN STAY SOBER LONG ENOUGH TO PUT THE SIDE UP ON A CRIB! PACK YOUR CRAP AND GET THE HELL OUT!"

He shot off the side of the bed and fell onto the floor, bare ass naked and looking every bit the deer in headlights. I tore into him, calling him every kind of thing I could think of, invading his personal space as he tried to explain himself, but I threw his jeans at him and told him over and over, "Just GO! GO WITH YOUR DAMN BAND!"

He tried begging, but I just kept on until he was nudged out of the bedroom and I slammed the door in his face and locked it. Listening through the baby monitor, I could hear him rattling around in the house, throwing his things into a bag and then staggering into his old room. He was alternately sobbing and muttering, and after a bit I heard him call Cullen and about 30 minutes after he left with J.D.

I don't think I have had a worse nights sleep in years.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Well I just want to say a huge "Thank You" to all of you who put this lil bit of insanity on alert and favorite and what not. I will do my level best to not let you down. I hit over 7000 hits for this last month and while to some that may seem like nothing, to someone like me, who replies to every single review and looks at every alert and favorite as a much cherished pat on the back, it meant the world. Thank you soo dang much!**

What the hell just happened? What did I do? One minute I am sound assed asleep in bed, dreaming the best dream of playing a sold out show, and the next thing I know I am in fear of getting my bits ripped off and im getting thrown out on my ass by a woman I thought had come to give a little bit of a damn about me. To make it worse, I had to leave my boy because J.D. said she would, in fact, rip my bits off if I left with him, and that it would be best if I just came along with him for the night until she calmed down.

"What the hell, man? What did I do?" He just shook his head and down shifted the truck so he could pull into convenience store.

"Ill be right back, man just sit tight." He hopped out and went in, leaving me to alone with my thoughts and my cell phone. I thought about calling her, but it was going on 4 a.m. and I knew she had been out on a call out, so maybe she was in a bad mood because she shot someone? Or maybe because she didn't shoot someone? I had no clue. Looking at the picture of my boy and her that was the screensaver, I couldn't figure why she had been so damn angry at me. Yeah, I left a little bit of a mess in the living room, but I would have cleaned it up in the morning. Wait a minute…she said something about the side of the crib being down? Did he fall out and get hurt? Had I let him get hurt? No…that couldn't be, she WOULD have killed me for that.

"Quit dwelling on things. There ain't no trying to sort out her mind tonight while your all worked up as well. Lets just get to the house and get some sleep and we can talk tomorrow." I hadn't even heard J.D. come back to the truck. My brain was just fried. The rest of the ride to his house I just felt numb, wondering what the hell was happening that my life had spun so far out my control.

Cullen was already asleep when we got in, so at least I didn't have to face him with my shame of being kicked to the curb like a disobedient dog that had pissed on the carpet. J.D. pointed me in the direction of the spare room and I let sleep take me, even though my mind was full of all the thoughts of what had gone wrong.

"Hey! I don't mind the view, but even if she kicked your ass out, she probably wouldn't like you sharing it around over here, so why don't you put some damn pants on and come out to breakfast."

Leave it to Cullen to make an already awkward morning even more awkward. Hadn't he heard of knocking? Yeah, its his house, but hell! I have slept skin to wind since I was in my teens, I just gotta be free and Bella had gotten used to it, though she insisted I keep a pair of sleep pants nearby in case daughter happened to be wandering around. So now I had been eye molested by Cullen who made no bones about the fact he would be more than happy to find out just how much I was like J.D., and I had to go out and face those to chuckleheads to see if they had any ideas on how to fix whatever the hell was wrong in my life.

Coffee was sitting on the table waiting for me as I came out into the kitchen. I gotta say that for a couple of rough and tumble guys, they had a damn nice house. I could see J.D.'s Texas roots all though it with the nice leather furniture and the wood tones and dark colors, the musical oriented décor and even the cop related stuff. It was a guy den through and through and it felt welcoming. I smiled when I saw the pictures of Bella and the rest of us on the mantle, and well as my boy with his two Godfathers. I knew they would make sure he was safe no matter what.

"Breakfast will be ready in a few, so grab a seat and get your brain woke up with some of that coffee."

Cullen was his normal chipper self and I found that to be pretty damn annoying. How he could be all status quo while the world was going to shit around us was beyond me. "Have you talked to Bella this morning?"

"Yeah, but we are gonna be sitting down and calm before we start that conversation, so just cool your tits and drink your coffee while we finish this up."

J.D. at least gave me a sympathetic look as he pulled the biscuits off the cookie sheet and brought them over to the table. "Its gonna be all right man, just take a deep breath and drink some coffee. We will get this all figured out."

The rest of the food hit the table shortly thereafter and next thing I knew I was facing a loaded down plate of biscuits, gravy and ham with a side of grits while those two looked at me like I was some kind of science experiment gone wrong.

"Boy, you need to eat. Its not going to do you any good to starve yourself so tuck in and we will talk." Cullen was being evasive and I knew that if it came down to brass tacks, he had Bella's back over mine, but I really hoped he would at least feel some loyalty to me as a guy and maybe some dedication to the, "bro code". J.D. was more of an unknown quantity. We had become really good friends and spent quite a bit of time hanging out and talking about Texas and growing up. Being he was my age and from where I was from, we got each other somewhat, and I hoped I could count on some support from him in whatever battle I was dealing with.

"You need to go work with your band. You have been to quote her, "Mopey and as moody as a teen girl with first time pms'. Cullen looked at me square in the eye. "You know you are missing it and have been a little difficult to be around lately and she is not used to nor does she want to get used to, putting up with a man who is moody. She had enough of that with Jacob and it makes her edgy and uncomfortable and that's probably what caused the explosion."

I felt like hell. I knew what had gone on with her ex. He was a drunken bastard that spent years terrorizing her, beating her down mentally and physically til he nearly killed her. She spent years working through PTSD and all the physical issues so that she could become a cop. She had stayed alone for years because of him, and after our tangle had resulted in the boy, I was the first man she had even considered allowing close to her, much less in her damn house, and then I had been acting like a sore assed grizzly and probably making her feel on edge in her own home.

"Oh damn…How do I fix it? Will she talk to me? I am sorry! I just…"

"Of course I will talk to you. But he's right, you need to go for a bit and just stretch your legs."

I hadn't even heard her come in behind me. She was standing there with my boy, looking as rough as I felt. J.D. got up and got her a cup of coffee while I jumped up and offered to take my boy. She handed him to me and he smacked me right in the face with a sticky, wet hand as if to tell me I was a knucklehead. Didn't expect it, but she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

'Thanks J.D., I needed that." she said as she took the coffee. "I gotta say, I didn't sleep for shit last night and I don't want it to be that way, but I cant live with the tension in the house that we had going on. You are missing your life and you know as well as I do, that if you don't get your ass back out there and promote and do your thing, you are either going to get replaced or you are going to just have to quit and I don't see you being the type to be happy working in an office somewhere, so you need to get for a bit, go do your thing with your band. I know they have been trying to get you to come join them, so why don't you?"

I had missed being out and playing music. The thrill of seeing the fans the knew the songs and sang along and the rush that came with playing a packed house was had to beat, but being with my boy with right up there with that feeling. I wouldn't take back one minute with him for all the sold out shows in the world, but I knew she was right, I hadn't been myself lately and I knew it was because I was feeling lost. I missed my friends and the life I had led prior to meeting her, and I imagine she was feeling pretty out of sorts herself, because we had both had to learn to adapt to each others habits and hobbies.

"I guess you are right. I do need to get out on the road. I owe the band and the guys that have worked soo damn hard to keep things going, so maybe I should go for a little while. They were playing some gigs with their side band down in San Diego and L.A., but I imagine I could catch up with them and we could do some surprise shows to see what the fan mood is, but I would need to make some calls to my booking agent to see what could be put together. Can you put up with me for a week or two until its all arranged?"

She smirked at me and patted me on the shoulder, "No more drinking like that when you are home alone with him and we will be fine. If you are feeling like you need a boys night out, just let me know and I will give you a break, its not a big deal."

"But what if I want a night in with just you and me?" Cullen and J.D. groaned. "Dammit boy! I was hoping you were gonna say you wanted a boys night in, we could accommodate you there!" He gave me that leer and a wink that made even J.D. shake his head.

"I told you before Cullen, nobody is tappin that ass but me, but if you would baby sit for us, it would be much appreciated."

Tapping what? What the hell was she talking about? Okay, NOW I was worried.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Guess I ought to throw the legal disclaimer up here for those that think I might have something that the ex-husband and the student loans already don't already own, here goes: Any similarity to anybody, who is live, dead, undead, real, fictional, imaginary, or otherwise wandering around out there in the ether is purely a coincidence. I don't know no one, don't wanna know no one, (coughLIEcoughcough) so ya'll just enjoy the story and speculate away. Only thing these folks have in common with Meyers characters is some extremely common names.**

Aww, Fuck me running! There is no way in hell I can send that boy off thinking I am all pissed off at him. I just cant do it. The look in his eyes when I slammed the bedroom door in his face about broke me right then, but I knew if I didn't put the fear of something into him, we were just going to keep on until we ended up resenting each other and I wasn't going to run the risk of having a surly, resentful, man in my home, even if he was on the runty side and even if I was fully capable of putting a hurting on him, I am getting too old for that shit and I have a baby to think about as well as a daughter who doesn't need the stress. It was just easier to make him think he was in the shit and boot his ass out the door, so I thought, until I actually did it.

"Let me guess, you want him back already? I knew you have gotten attached. He's still asleep but from what I heard, he's pretty fucked up. Jeeze, did you have to not only kick the puppy, but skin it and wear its hide as a trophy?" Well, I could tell I wasn't going to be getting any slack from the Captain.

"Look, Its not that I want him back right now. We both know that he needs to go do his thing for a while, but I cant let him leave thinking I'm pissed off at him. I need to fix that. He would be even less likely to take care of himself if he's all stressed out and upset, and besides, he probably needs a few days to arrange things and I don't want to leave his tender young ass at your mercy that long."

" Now what makes you think I would do anything to him? Oh wait…never mind, you're right. We were just about to get up and go start breakfast, why don't you give us about 45 minutes and then come over. Plan on leaving the baby with us for the night and you two spend some time just uh…doing whatever it is you two do."

"You guys don't mind?" I was glad to hear that he was in agreement with me on my idea and an evening together to just talk and whatever would be good for both of us, unless of course he was pissed off and decided to just take his butt on down the road. I really had no idea which way he was going to be feeling, and by all rights, he would be justified going either way. I had pretty much ripped his damn head off with very little provocation and I had over-reacted, but then again he had put the baby in danger by drinking too damn much and leaving the side of the crib down, and I still had no freaking clue why his drawers were under the damn couch.

By the time I got over there it was going on an hour, but dealing with a child that had to explode both ends as if he was trying to sympathize with his father and his misery.

The boy did look every bit as rough as I felt and I knew I had done the right thing by deciding to fix it. It was a miracle of miracles that Spence stayed quiet and I was able to stand behind him and hear what he had to say. I don't know what my reaction would have been if he was angry and calling me all kinds of a bitch and whatever else that I felt like.

Once we handed off the baby and his, and secured a promise from Cullen and J.D. that they wouldn't stuff him too full of treats or buy him too many other toys or whatever, we headed back to the house to talk to each other like a couple of reasonable grown ups, though knowing him, he would be quite capable of making me forget my powers of speech in short order.

"I'm sorry." He came out of the gate with an apology and I figured that I had to give as good as I got, so I said, " No, I am sorry. I was way out of line with how I went off on you and it was disrespectful and rude. I should have just talked to you like the adult you are."

I don't know why he was standing there in front of me like he just got struck by lightning. His mouth hanging open and his eyes looking like he saw something so surprising that hell, his hair oughta even be sticking up a little bit, so I figured I might oughta just plan on the talking part of things being over. "You? You? You are apologizing? But you don't….!" He vapor locked at that point and just stood there looking at me with that shocked look again so I just grabbed him by the belt and started leading him down the hall.

"C'mon Sugarbritches, I got a better place for you and better things for you to be doing than standing there, though if you wanna try some of what I have planned standing, you are gonna have to get a little more ass in your pants."

This is what I was going to be missing. Good Lord the boy is talented and enthusiastic and energetic. He had actually managed to gain a few pounds since he had been living with me, and along with hitting the gym on a regular basis with me and the boys, he had filled out in his chest and shoulders, and hell, he did have a little more ass, in and out of his pants.

He had gotten more ink over the past few months, and it made him look all the more like a young rock star slumming it. I told him it was like the comic page for me if I got bored with what he was doing, at least I had something to look at. He didn't appreciate my humor, and I never got bored, to tell the truth I often had to wait until he was asleep to actually get a good look at his new stuff and honestly, there had been quite a few nights when I had come in from a call out and he was already all assed out in bed asleep, that I spent just looking at him and wondering 'What the hell?'

He was as pretty as a speckled pup in a little red wagon, talented, intelligent and financially secure six different ways to Sunday, so much so in fact, he could have probably hired some legal eagle and fought me for the kid, but he didn't. He just seemed content to let things be and be unhappy himself. Looking at him when he was asleep, I had gotten the see just how lucky I was to have such a cute little bed warmer, but also I also realized just how young he was and just how much more living he needed to get out and do, each new tattoo said that he was still fighting to keep that spirit alive in spite of the grown up boots he was trying to wear.

"Quit thinking so hard, lets just enjoy this night to ourselves with both kids out of the house. We can talk about things tomorrow after they get back, tonight lets just enjoy each other." He damn sure knew how to get my attention back on task.

His hair had grown back out from the short cut that he had gotten when he first moved in with me, and I loved tangling my hands in it. Just the feel of him was pure sin. Lean and lithe and able to move in ways that no other man I had ever been with had been capable of. I don't know it's a rock star thing or if the boy was just gifted, but oh. My. God. The rhythm he set with his hips was like some kind of song that carried you along. He was everywhere at once and doing things with his hands that had me wondering where the hell he learned that kind of stuff? Was there some kind of secret rock star school where they passed on little tricks of the trade? I stepped up my game and let the, "Over 40 and has probably forgot more than you will ever learn" side of me come forth and by the surprised squeak that was followed with a groan of pleasure, I could tell he was happy.

We spent the night and a great part of the next morning, much like we did when we first met, christening the bed, the living room floor, the bathroom and even though I knew it was going to be a bad idea, the shower. On demand hot water heaters can only do so much, and I warned him that damn floor was slick. His knee was going to look like hell for a week or two and my butt was going to have a hell of a bruise, but he was right, it was, "Worth it".

We didn't fall asleep until around nine am, exhausted, sated and trying not to think of the looming separation that was going to put both of through stresses and changes that neither of us could anticipate.

.

"


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Apologies for this taking so long to get up, I had to make a run to AZ to collect my 2 sons from my ex with no notice, so now I am single parenting 4 kids. Its a lot crazier around here, but a lot more fun as well. **

Leaving? Did I really want to do that? Would a short tour cure what ailed me or would I just want more and more of it? I had enjoyed spending time with my boy, and hearing him call me, 'Daddy" for the first time about sealed the deal right then and there for making me want to chuck it all and just stay home and be a house husband, but I had missed playing with my boys very badly and I felt I owed it to them to at least spend some time helping to promote the new music we had written.

Waking up the next day left me feeling more confused that I had the night before. I enjoyed being with her, even though she scared the hell out of me half the damn time and the thoughts of what she could and would do to me if I stepped out of line, had me more than a little worried for my bits, I was comfortable being with her. I could be myself and just be a regular guy. She really didn't give a rats ass for my money or my fame or any of that. She was just content to let me be me.

We clicked in many ways and the sex was outstanding. I know understand why soo many movies make a big deal out of a younger guy landing an older woman…they know things, amazing things that girls my age have no freaking clue about. Like the t-shirt I found in her closet, "It only seems kinky the first time", should be the older woman's credo because man…let me tell you what, those cuffs of hers sure come in handy.

I left her sleeping while I got up to make some calls to see just what it would take to get a short tour put together. Luckily, the guys were raring to go and some of the smaller venues we had played in the past were more than happy to have us stop by for a few shows. A few emails later and the bands manager had us booked on a 10 city tour that would take us through the lower West and into Texas for a few surprise shows. It didn't allow much time for ticket sales, but our fans, being the loyal nuts they were, would have us close to sold out within a week or so. The guys had been playing as one of the sidebands while I was being, 'Daddy", so they were well rehearsed and raring to go.

I knew it was going to be hard, but I planned on taking my truck so that I could peel off and come home whenever I felt like it. "Home?" was that what this was now? It sure felt like it. I love my boy, and as for her, she would skin me alive and salt my bones if she knew, but I loved her too. She was sanity and stability and someone who could see past everything into me. I knew she liked to pretend that she was just putting up with me, but I knew different. I knew she looked at me when she thought I was asleep. I knew me and my boy were her screensaver on her computer at work and that she carried a picture of us in her gear for good luck. She cared, even if she wasn't ready to admit it, and I knew that taking off and leaving her and my boy was going to be tough on all of us.

Getting her coffee started was the one way to stay on her good side, so I got it going and then headed back to the bedroom to see if I could wake her up in a way that was sure to leave her missing me more than she had thought possible.

She looks all peaceful and calm, sound asleep, sprawled out over 2/3's of the bed, but I know if I don't approach her the right way, I could end up on the wrong end of a fist or a kick to the head, so I made sure that instead of starting right in kissing my way up her leg, I started by gently stroking her and letting her know it was me. When she opened a bleary eye and groaned at me, "Just what are you up to, young man?" I knew I was good to go.

I don't think the Captain and J.D. expected our night off to last until the next night, but bless them, they had our son over 30 hours without a break, finally letting themselves into the house to get him more clothes and to wake us up, again.

"Will you two get the hell off of each other and come let your child know you are still alive?" The Captain didn't even bother to stay outside the bedroom door, he was leaned up against the jamb, leering at me like I was some prime cut of meat that he wanted to sample as Bella threw a pillow at him and tried to pull the sheets up to cover us.

"Cullen! Get the hell out of here and quit eye-fucking the boy! Dammit! If I said it once, I've said it a million times, it would just be too weird!"

I rolled over and grinned back at him, after all, over the course of the time I had gotten to know him, I knew he was mostly harmless, and my bits were just bits to him, but it got Bella's goat that he ogled me like he did when she was around.

"Nice ink, when are you going to take the big boy step and get that thing pierced?" He grinned at me and winked as Bella stopped her searching and gave both of us a wide eyed stare.

"He is piercing nothing! That's just wrong. His pecker works just fine the way it is, it doesn't need any hardware to make it work any different."

I could do nothing but shrug and smile at him, "She's the boss."

'Ah Hah! So that's how it is? Well boy, I had always figured her for a top, but you know it might do her a world of good to be a little less dominating in the sack. I can teach you a thing or two about being in control if you need me to." Cullen walked over and sat on the end of the bed, leaning towards me in a conspiratorial way, "J.D. can give you some pointers about being in command. You know, he may be short, but he knows how to take things in hand…"

AKK! Shut UP! Cullen! Get your ass out of my bedroom and quit putting ideas in the boys head! Bella started throwing shoes and things at him at that point so he jumped up and left the room, his deep laughing echoing down the hallway. I could hear J.D. and Spence out in the living room, so I found my jeans and wandered out after him.

"You two get things sorted out?" J.D. was laying on the floor with Spence crawling back and forth across him like some wiggly obstacle.

Yeah, I'm going to go on a short tour for a month or so, and get it out of my system. I'm taking my truck so I can peel off and come back when I want to, and we will have Skype and stuff while im gone. Its gonna be hard as hell, but it will be good for both of us I guess. I said these things to J.D., but I wasn't really too sure about it. Yeah, saying it would be good for us was one thing, but actually believing it was another. Being on the road was crazy and lots of stuff went on that I knew Bella would not approve of, but maybe I could keep that stuff dialed back in now that the guys knew I was a family man. I could only hope.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N I lost quite a few reviews somehow. I saw them, meant to reply to them when I got home from work and once I got a minute to sit down and try to reply, I couldn't find them! If you didn't get a reply, you have my sincerest apologies. I am not someone who takes my readers for granted. I appreciate everydamn one of you and I am very grateful for those of you who take the time to let me know how the hell I am doing. Those of you are are rec'cing me? You are angels! Hope you like it.**

He was actually leaving. His gear was all packed in his truck, we had mapped out his route several times, and he was leaving. Last night we had thrown a little farewell party and spent most of the evening pretending that everything was going to be just fine, but the problem was, I had realized that I was going to miss the little bastard. I was worried about him and I knew if I let on in the least little bit, I would never hear the end of it. I was disturbed enough to realize myself that he mattered to me. I had lost my autonomy. He wasn't just some sperm donor that I could casually thank for my sons beautiful eyes and dimples and thick hair. No…he was someone who had managed to worm his way into my stone cold heart, whittle himself a little cave and make himself right at home. Dammit.

"Well, I guess I need to hit the road. If I time it right, I can hit San Francisco before dark."

I nodded at him. We had planned all of it out. He was driving down the coast of California, doing a little site seeing and visiting some friends he hadn't seen for a while, then meeting up with the band just as they started through Arizona. Cullen and J.D. had warned him about driving through Western Arizona, and hopefully he would avoid it alone, but he was running on a fairly tight schedule.

"Yeah, you better give your boy a hug and get going." He looked at me and smiled. Fuck. He knew. I know he knew. I tried to glare and him and turn away, but with a wiggly kid in my arms that was doing his best to turn inside out to escape, it wasn't easy. I handed him to his dad and walked over to Cullen and attempted to look interested in the load in the truck.

"You don't fool us for one damn minute woman. Go give that boy a kiss and tell him you love him." Cullen took drag on a cigarette that I desperately wished to take away from him and huff down like a junkie mainlining the last hit of horse to be found in the world. "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Cowboy" I glared at him as J.D. snickered at me.

Watching my two boys together I felt my heart ache and I cursed my luck as the ache in my joints and the ghosts of pain in my scars reminded me of the last time I was foolish enough to let a man into my world. He had been less edgy since he had made his tour plans, and things had been calmer in the house, but was that any kind of life? I needed the thrill of going on raids and working to make the world safer, and he needed the rush of being on stage and making people happy. We are both adrenaline fueled people, and that could lead to either great or terrible things when thrown together. We had laughed when we realized that we had both bought Spence the same book at the same time because it was our favorite book, "Where The Wild Things Are" was a book we both related to and we knew we were both "Wild Things" and if not careful, we could eat each other up, and not in a fun and entertaining way.

'All right you! Time to go. Give me the kid and load your tight ass into that truck and hit the road before we all witness a miracle and Swan breaks down and bawls or something."

Cullen strode over and clapped his paw on my boys shoulder and took the baby from him with a smile. They did their weird , "Bro hug" which looked pretty gay, and with all the Bromance that had been floating around since the boy had moved in, had frankly left me wondering about that whole, "tree swinging" theory Cullen had. When they were finally done, Cullen and J.D. took Spence and headed into the apartment. Walking past me, Cullen said, 'Remember, always say what's in your heart because you never know when it might be the last time you see them."

I hated the chokey feeling that put in my heart and throat as I looked at him. He stood there next to his truck, toeing the ground with those ridiculous, worn out, smelly boots he insisted on wearing though I had banned them from the house for their odor of road kill combined with locker room. He looked small standing there. Maybe it was my maternal protectiveness kicking in or maybe it was the fact the truck was so damn big, but I was all of the sudden worried about him. He was small. Not much bigger than me, and he tended to think he was 10ft tall and bullet proof, but he barely had any ass in his pants and he was a bit of a pretty boy that tended to piss most men off just on principal. I worried he was going to end up in fights in those seedy, dive bars him and his band tended to play, and he had a history of leading with his face when he got into fights.

Yeah, he had learned a few things about defending himself while he was with me, but I worried he wasn't going to take care of himself. Fuck. I am not his momma. I am not his wife. I had sworn I wasn't going to get emotionally involved. I needed to get some distance from him so I could regain my power, but…dammit.

The hug. That was what did it. His hugs are powerful things. Along with those puppy dog/baby harp seal eyes, his hugs turn even the strongest people to mush. I felt the sob rip through me before I could choke it back and I heard him sniffle as well.

"You damn well better behave yourself and take care of yourself young man. You have a little boy that will be waiting for you to come back here and teach him to play that ridiculous guitar you got him. Now get your ass in that truck and go before I decide to cuff you and drag you back in the house and never let you leave."

He squeezed me a little tighter for a minute, and we stood there forehead to forehead, just breathing. My damn hands and knees shaking for some reason that made no sense. I stepped back and gently pushed him towards his truck and muttered, 'Go on, dammit" and he slowly turned and opened the door and stepped up in.

"Ill be back before you know it, Ill call you from the road and we will Skype nightly." He smiled at me as the truck roared to life.

"Put your seat belt on and don't call me while you are driving. You don't have to call every night, I know how things are when you are doing your thing." I gave him a stern look, "Behave yourself, Young Man. Take it easy on the booze and other stuff. You know what the hell I am talking about, and for fucks sake, eat a meal or two, will you?"

He laughed at me, " Yes, mom!"

"That's just perverted and wrong, but hey…whatever floats your boat , there jr." he blushed furiously and grinned as I reached up and caught his hand.

'Please, be careful and take care of yourself? Promise? He needs you." I could feel my stone cold heart melting inside as he smiled back at me.

"I promise. I will see you guys soon. Tell Jess not to be such a chicken shit next time." (she had refused to tell him goodbye and had instead left the room in tears when he told her he was leaving for a little bit), "I will tell her and she sends a crude gesture back at you."

He laughed and put the truck in gear and pulled out of the drive. I didn't realize I was crying until Cullen came out and handed me a Kleenex and walked me into the house. Dammit.


	6. Chapter 6

"So where is she tonight?" Cullen sighed deeply before he answered and I knew I wasn't going to like the answer.

"Her and J.D. got some intel on a new biker gang trying to take over the meth market in Gresham, so they have been out scouting a few of the bars down in Rockwood."

Dammit! I knew she was trying to keep herself busy to keep from missing me, but was she trying to commit suicide? She hadn't spoken to me other than a brief , "Hello/Goodbye" a week ago as I was arriving in San Diego, and though I had sent her and the baby several care packages and tried to Skype with her, I kept getting either Cullen or Jess every time I called. She was dodging me and I didn't like it. If she was having second thoughts about us, she needed to be straight with me, not trying to self destruct while I was gone.

"I have tried talking to her, but she's on one of her tears and it just gets my head ripped off. Where the hell are you at, anyway? Are you still in California or are you in Texas or what?"

I laughed at him, I knew he watched some of the fan videos posted online because he posted some pretty obscene comments that could only come from him, but when it came to keeping track of things, he was terrible.

"I'm back in Tucson tonight. We are playing a show here, then up to Phoenix and maybe one more show in AZ and then we are heading back into Cali."

About that time I heard the little guy start fussing and Cullen distractedly said, "Well, watch your six in Western AZ. Try to avoid it as much as possible."

He didn't get to finish what he was saying before Spence apparently erupted both ends all over him because I heard an urping sound and Cullen squawking like he was being killed before he shouted, "Gotta go, talk to you later, I will work on her man, don't worry!"

The tour had been going good. The band was working well together and the fans were are enthusiastic as ever. Working the crowd was easy and often got them whipped up into quite the frenzy, which helped push sales at our merchandise table, and got us a lot of positive buzz on the web. We had a pack of regular gals that seemed to find the funds to follow around after us wherever we ended up, and they were always great for whipping the crowd up into a frenzy for us with some pretty good trash talk and cat calling. Things had gotten out of hand a few times in the past, but they had never really gotten too crazy, how the hell was I supposed to know a show in some little dive bar in a dust bowl town in western Arizona was going to be the place where everything finally went too far?

We rolled into town late, one of the cars had over-heated, we had gotten a flat out in the middle of nowhere on the trailer shortly thereafter, and it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did. We should have taken it as a sign to just avoid the hell out of that town and just drive our asses on into San Diego, but we didn't want to disappoint our fans who had gone to the trouble to book us into some place called the 8th Street Tavern, and who had managed to sell over 300 tickets sold for us, which in that part of the country was actually quite a bit. They had even promised us a big after party with a bar b cue and all kinds of treat, and it was just a sweet deal all the way around with even the rooms at a nice hotel comped for us.

It was hotter than hell, we were all tired, but we off loaded our gear and set up quickly as possible into a place that looked like something out of a bad 70's biker movie. Once again ignoring my gut instinct that said, "Ohh no, this is soo not something Bella would approve of," I walked up the bartender and got the details on where we would be setting up. He grunted at me and gestured vaguely towards the back of the bar behind the pool tables where a couple of surly looking bikers were shooting a game, and I shrugged and started setting up. The girls finally came stampeding in, squealing and giggling, creating as much commotion as a bunch of already semi-drunk girls can create when they are excited and traveling in large numbers.

The bar quickly filled up and soon it was packed tighter than I have ever seen any venue packed before, and it was a well lit crowd with not only liquor free flowing but just about every other substance you could think of making the rounds through the crowd. It started out a pretty happy bunch, but then someone got their feelings hurt over something and the next thing I know there are a couple of chicks brawling right in front of me. I didn't know whether to let them duke it out, or to try and break it up, but honestly, they were bigger than me and nobody was getting too worked up over it, so I just kept on singing and ignored them until the crowd just kinda absorbed them and rolled them back towards the doors.

Beer, whiskey, tequila, cigarettes, …whatever was handed to me, I may have indulged. I was in the moment, working the crowd and loving being back doing what I do best. I didn't think about the cameras that were recording everything I was doing. Every little smile, every little smirk and shake of my ass. I have no idea what got into me and him. We have played off of each other on stage before because the fans dig it. Maybe there was something in one of those drinks, but add in the heat, the crowd, the sexual frustration of being away from her and the chaos of the day and things got out of hand. I don't remember hitting my knees. I don't remember the roar of the crowd or me ripping his jeans open, (causing him to miss a chord for the first time ever), I do remember waking up in a jail cell without my clothes, with stitches in my head and black eye, wondering just what the hell happened.

"J.D.! Holy Hell! You have got to see this!" Hearing Edward yell like that told me that whatever he had to show me was either really damn good, or really damn bad. From the look on his face as I walked into the room, I knew it was a combination of both.

"I TOLD YOU that boy had swung from both sides of the tree." he was still sitting there with a look of pure shock on his face, so I knew he wasn't really believing what he was seeing as well, so I nudged him in the shoulder.

"Don't be so damn cocky, you know that boy is straight, he's just drunk or on something." Cullen looked at me and scoffed. "If he's that good at it drunk or high, then DAMN! He's got to be a freaking pro when he's sober."

There's no convincing him otherwise, and the video is pretty damming. Bella is going to lose her mind. Not only is her lil fella indulging in a rather graphic bit of PDA with his band mate, but he's obviously very fucked up and by the end of the video very arrested in the worst place in Arizona for someone who looks like him to be arrested.


	7. Chapter 7

Why am I naked? Where the hell am I? Why do I feel like I got hit by a Mack truck that back up on me a few times? A survey of the damage reveals bruises in places that no man should have bruises. There is a huge bandage wrapped around my head, covering what I can feel to be a bunch of stitches in a partially shaved skull! WHAT. THE. HELL. HAPPENED?

Getting up off the bunk I hobble over to the little window and look out into and brightly lit hallway. "Hello?" I called out to see if anyone would answer me. I could hear voices and banging around, so I knew there were people moving around. "Hello?" The second call out got some results and I saw a behemoth of a man walking down the hall towards the window.

'Amanda!, you're awake finally! You gonna behave yourself now?" The giant stopped outside the window and grinned at me like I was some kind of cartoon character about to do a trick for him.

'Who the hell is Amanda?" I had no idea what the hell he was talking about.

"Why that is what you said your name was when we were trying to pull you out from under the pool table. You kept yelling, "My name is Amanda!" and trying to wrap yourself around the Lt. the whole time we were trying to get the cuffs and some clothes back on you. I don't know what the hell you were on, but it must have been good, you are quite the Youtube sensation, the video already has over fifty thousand hits and has a dub step. The Cpl. isn't quite as thrilled with it, and he's determined that you are some guy he knew a few years ago that is on his major shit list, so if I were you, I would figure out who the hell I am or let us get a set of prints without trying to molest every tech that tries it, so we can get you booked in under your real name and get you either out of his sights, or out of my hair."

I'm on Youtube doing God knows what to God knows who? I'm dead. She's had to have already seen it and if she hasn't she soon will and that will be all she wrote. She will gut me with a dull spoon and wear my pecans for earrings. I'm probably better off taking my chances with this Cpl and safer being in jail.

"Where is my wallet, that has all my information in it along with my contacts and proof of who I am." The giant laughed.

"Man, you didn't have anything on when we found you. It was chaos in that cess pool. Your buddies had didi'd out the back door when the real bikers showed up and the riot started, which by the way, was the smart thing to do. They tried to drag you out with them, but after you tried to uh…service the guitarist? They were a having a hard time handling you. The fan girls started the riot when Snake cold-cocked you, and all hell broke loose. I've never seen the like. Fan girls smacking up on bikers, you assed out on the floor until some large lady stuffed you under the pool table,(she stole your pants first though and snapped a picture of your junk), you really oughta consider wearing chones in the future, man."

My junk had been photographed? I couldn't help it, I barfed all over the floor at that point and just fell to my knees in the mess as everything went all wobbly. The giant scooted back pretty quick for a large guy, and he hollered for medical, and the next thing I know I'm surrounded by half a dozen large people who truss me up like a Christmas turkey and haul me off to a cot in the medical wing where my head is x-rayed again. I hear the words concussion and bleed, and then im on the way to the hospital where everything goes dark.

"This is soo not good. I got a hold of his manager and from what I was able to find out, he's been arrested on charges of indecent exposure, battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct, sexual battery. He's in custody, but was transported to the hospital last night with a bleed in his brain. They are giving them a hard time about getting anymore information on him because apparently there is some dispute over his identity and his next of kin. The worst has happened, Lou is the arresting officer. I'm going to have to go down there and clear this up with Bella and get him the hell out of there. J. D. solemnly looked up from his laptop, where he had been watching videos on the computer first thing in the morning in an attempt to find out what had been going on with the young rock star after the first video had hit the net the night before and had been duplicated and tweeted all over hell and gone.

"Like hell you are! I am not having you go down there and face that psycho again, if you go, I am going with you and we are going prepared for battle. Call our lawyer and get him involved see what he can get dismissed before we get down there, and then get prepared for Bella to be ready to shoot first and ask questions later. Do we know if she has seen this yet?"

J.D. shook his head, "I called Jess first thing this morning and made sure that she knocked out the internet at the house, so that she couldn't see it, and she's going to ride herd on her so she can get her over here as soon as she gets up. We need to alert his family so they can get involved in his defense, just in case this gets really bad. You and I both know what Lou is capable of, and we don't want him left down there any longer than necessary and we damn sure don't want Bella squaring off against Lou, that would be bad…very, very bad."

Not knowing how Bella was going to react was the part that had everyone on edge. We knew she was going to be pissed as hell at his antics, and he was going to be in a world of hurt when she got a hold of him, but considering she hadn't even been willing to talk to him for a more than a few minutes over the last few weeks, how was she going to react to the fact that the boys very hide was in danger? She tended to become a she-grizzly with rabies when one of hers was threatened, and I really didn't know if she saw him as one of hers yet, I knew she saw me and Edward as hers, because she had proven that time and time again, but she had been distancing herself from him, and that worried me. I hoped she cared enough about him to want to go and rescue him, he was a good enough guy at heart and he didn't deserve to be left in jail in a place where what he did could get him hurt because people would think he was like me and Edward.

"She's on her way and Jess says she's already in a foul mood because the net was out, so its going to be fun dealing with her. What's going to be the game plan?

Edward was pacing like a nervous lion. For a Captain who handled all kinds of stressful situations at work, and who had been under fire in SWAT situations, he sure let Bella stress him pretty quick. I decided to give him an out.

'You go into the office and call the lawyer and his parents. Get our flight to Phoenix arranged and see what you can arrange for Jess and the baby. I will handle Bella. I am going to have to let her in on everything so she knows what he is facing down there, maybe that will tone down her reaction to his little bit PDA with his buddy, but just to be on the safe side, you might want to warn him to not be anywhere in the vicinity when we get there. I know he was innocent,(sort of), but she's going to be pissed they left him, so they will be safest far away from her.

He looked like he had just been granted a last minute call from the govenor as we heard the sound of the front door opening. "Thanks, Jay, I owe you one." He hauled ass down the hall as stealthily and quickly as possible as Bella and Jess came into the living room.

"Hey, J.D., Whats up? You guys have internet over here? Ours seems to be down for some damn reason and its pissing me right the hell off. The damn cable company swears and be-damns its not their fault and that they cant get out til sometime next week. Rotten fucking bastards, I know damn well they would be Johnny on the spot to shut me off if I was a day late with the damn payment…"

She really was on a tear, and I could tell it was only going to get worse when I let her in on the fact that we had been keeping shit from her, so I started right in, kicking up the accent just a little to try and get the," Texas discount" I was sometimes able to charm out of her and other women.

"Bella, sugar. I need you to come sit down next to me, I have something to talk to you about and then to show you, and its going to upset you some." She stopped and gave me the glare that told me I was in trouble, so I started talking fast.

"You know that we came from down in Arizona and that there was a pretty bad situation we left up out of? I stood up and started unbuttoning my shirt and as her eyes big and Jess sat down with the baby cuddled up in her arms. I didn't often take off my shirt in public because I had put what had happened behind me. I had survived it, it had been handled privately, and we had left because we knew nothing was ever going to come of trying to get justice, but I knew she needed to know what we were dealing with. I pulled my shirt off and turned around.

"I was a full deputy. Had been in the department for a few years, was decorated and I thought well respected, but I had made an enemy who had deep roots in the department. Someone who has something on that command staff that must be soo earth shattering that he gets a free pass on everything short of murder. Him and his buddies caught me one day as I was leaving Edwards house. They held me for 3 days before the dumped me in the desert. I wont go into what all went on, and they wore masks so I couldn't identify them, but they left their mark. Edward found me and took me to a hospital in San Diego where I was checked in under an alias and from there it was decided it was best I not return.

Jess gasped as she took in the full range of my scars and the words carved into my skin. The word, "Faggot" across my back was really clear, but I had tattooed over most of the others.

Bella sat down on the couch in front of the computer. "Show me, what has happened and how much trouble he is in."

I gotta give it to her, she was much more composed than Jess was. Her jaw clenched a little as Spencer squealed," Daddy!" when he first saw him appear, and then when Jess quickly clamped a hand over his eyes as his daddy hit his knees in front of the guitarist. I didn't see her get enraged until he was drug out from under the pool table by his hair and slammed around by Lou, like he was some rag doll, even though he was hardly capable of resisting anything in his naked and out of it state. She got really pissed when she saw him suitcased and flung into the back of the patrol car by a gleeful Lou who gloatingly said, "Got you now you little bastard.", to which Bella replied to the screen, "Oh you got something you son of a bitch, but you aren't gonna like it when it gets a hold of you." She cared. Oh boy did she care. Hell was coming and the little rock star was getting his biscuits pulled out of the fire by the devil herself, but he may just find them cooked in her own special way but the one who hurt him? He was to rue the day he messed with her lil rock star.


	8. Chapter 8

Sick. Sick with rage. Sick with fear. I wanted to burn down the Goddamned world and shove the ashes of it down the throat of the bastard that had hurt my boy. I knew he was in a very bad spot. I knew much of J.D.'s story because Edward had told me one evening when J.D. had gotten banged up pretty bad during a domestic violence call and had ended up in the hospital. He was a tough lil nut, but he had lived through some rough shit. The scars on his back were the least of it. He had undergone a bunch of surgeries to reconstruct his parts and he had been brutally used by the very same men who tortured him for being gay. If the same bastard who did that to J.D. now had my boy and thought that he was J.D. I couldn't get down there fast enough.

"We need to get a flight booked for me, like NOW. Jess, can you handle the baby for w few days?"

"Whoa, Whoa Whoa! Edward is already working on getting the arrangements made. We should have tickets booked in the next little bit and the lawyer on the case as well. We have already put a call into his family to give them a heads up that he is going to need some help, and I can tell you that getting more visibility and attention on him right now, is exactly what we want to do. Lou hates anyone looking at him too long. He will get nervous and that will keep him from acting against him anymore than he already has. I know that right now he is back in the hospital. I am trying to get him transferred up to Phoenix to Barrows, but they are saying he's not seriously enough injured to warrant a transfer. I am hoping that throwing money at the right people will change that opinion."

"Mom! How about I go to his fansite and alert all his fans that he's in trouble? That will get a huge amount of attention and get them swamped with women!" Jess kinda cringed as she said that, she knew that we normally tried to avoid exactly that thing, but now was not the time to be all secretive and quiet.

'Do it. The more mayhem the merrier. That video may have cost him some fans, but knowing those crazy-assed heifers that follow that band, it may have just sent their next album to gold too." That brought the first smile to the room that had been seen since I walked in. We functioned effectively as a team when we had a common goal of protecting one of our own, and dammit, he was ours.

"Did you reach his family or anyone?" Edward shook his head. "They are out of the country on vacation and I have no idea where. I left a message for them to call me as soon as possible, but for now, we are on our own."

"Not to worry, we are more than enough. When do we leave?"

Edward was all business now, "We leave in two hours. I booked us seats together but separate rental cars. We will want to fly low and off the radar once we hit town. We have some friends we can stay with who know we are coming, but we don't want Lou to even suspect we are anyway involved with him or it will put him in more danger than he's already in. right now he might have the benefit of the doubt, Lou might think he's J.D., but he's not 100% sure, otherwise he would have ended up in much worse shape than he currently is, and we all know it. The lawyer is working on getting his identity established so Lou will lose interest in him, once that is done, then its just a matter of getting the charges either reduced or dropped all together and getting him the hell out of there."

"No. That's not all." They looked at me like I had grown a second head. "Once we get him the hell out of there and safely away, we are going to make sure that bastard is done hurting people. I don't care what we have to do to take him down, its time this stops for once and for all, but first we get my boy out of there and safely away to where I can deal with him once he is healed up and haired over from whatever that bastard did to him."

"Bella, you don't know what you are dealing with down there. You are talking about decades of the old boy network, covering up for one of their own and God only knows how many bodies have been dumped out in the desert and picked clean or simply labeled "Illegal Immigrant that died of exposure" and then buried in a paupers grave, never to be thought of again. I am willing to bet that if you looked on the missing persons website, there are probably more than a few that were, "Last seen" in that part of the country and then never heard of again. Lots of bad things can happen and then get easily explained away. I was almost one of them and if not for Edward, I would have been. If he hadn't gone looking for me, it would have been weeks before I was reported missing, and then it would have been reported to the very people who caused me to vanish. They have been investigated for human rights abuses before, and nothing came of it. I counted myself lucky to get out of there with my life and the ability to get a job." J.D. was on his feet, his face flushed with anger and worry. Edward moved over and put his arms around him, hugging him tightly and whispering into his ear non-sensical things that seemed to calm him down.

I felt horrible, but I was also deeply angry at the bastard that had obviously done soo much damage to this brave and kind young man that I knew was virtually fearless in the face of almost anything. "J.D., I am so sorry. I didn't mean to make you think that I wasn't taking the threat seriously. I know I am walking into a hornets nest, but I also want to make sure that it stops. NO. MATTER. WHAT. No one is bullet proof, do you copy?" he looked at me, his eyes widening in shock as he grasped exactly what I meant.

"It's a big dangerous desert. A man like that is sure to have made more than a few enemies. Maybe its time they found out all about him, little things like his home address and everything they could ever have wanted to know about a racist, homophobic, crooked, black-mailing, cop. I don't just know other cops, thanks to my wonderful ex-husband, I also happen to know a bunch of bikers, in fact, the bikers I know just moved a new chapter house into that very city and they are looking for all kinds of information on scum like him."

"Holy Shit, Bella! You are one scary woman." Edward looked at me with shock written plainly on his face.

'Stifle it, Cullen. You know you would do the same. Id rather be hung for a horse thief than a beggar, so lets get this show on the road. I need to make a couple of phone calls before we leave and handle some arrangements of my own. Which one of you knows more about this bastard that hurt my boys?"

J.D. smiled at me when I called him my boy as well, but he's family too and what hurt him and created that much stress and worry for him and hurt him, hurt me and I damn sure intended to get a pound of flesh for him as well. "That would be me." Cullen volunteered. "I worked with him the longest and I do know where he lived and hung out, so if you want to perhaps, share some information, I guess I cant imagine what the harm in that would be?"

Once I got the information I needed relayed to the proper people, then we loaded up and headed to the airport. Jess set up a Twitter feed directly to my phone that let me see exactly what kind of chaos the fans of that weird little band were wreaking upon that ass-backwards 'burb he was currently trapped in. Apparently everything short of a full on media blitz had hit the hospital and the police department, and fans were flying in from all over the country to participate in his vindication. The lawyer had managed to get an order for the blood that was drawn from him upon his initial treatment to be tested for every substance known to man and animal, so if he was drugged against his will, then that would have to be taken into consideration. There was a call out on the fan page for the attendees from the concert to help out by not only letting his manager know if he had been given anything for, "Fun" with a promise of immunity that made my blood boil, but also requests for any and all versions of all video to be uploaded and shared to the main site to that a case for brutality could be made against the department. The requests for videos and images was a double-edged sword however, because while I knew he had gotten naked, I did not know that someone had taken the time to take up close and personal pictures of his bits…until my daughter forwarded them to me with the heading, "Damn! Mom!" I t was a lesson to me that I should never click on a picture link with the fellas around without first knowing what was contained within.

"So someone did get you some jewelry after all? Niiiiiiceee!" Cullen fist bumped J.D. as I glared at them both and decided that once I got him out of there safely, I was going to kill him.


	9. Chapter 9

"Hun, Hun! I want you to wake up for me. Can you hear me? Squeeze my fingers if you can hear me."

Someone would not shut the hell up. I had a pounding fucking headache, I couldn't hardly move and now someone was annoying the shit out of me by constantly yapping in my ear about waking up. I didn't care if they did have a nice, soft, voice, I didn't want to wake up. If I stayed asleep, I could pretend that all the bad shit of the past few days was part of some bad dream and that I was back home with my family. Trying to roll over on my side to get away from the voice did me no damn good, something was tying my wrists and ankles to the bed, since when did we get that kinky? All of the sudden a sharp pain raked up and down the center of my chest! What the hell!

"I knew those pretty eyes of yours were in there." The owner of the voice was a nurse who looked pretty damn amused at my expression of shock. "Can you answer some questions for me?"

She wanted me to answer questions? I wasn't sure if I could. I felt like my head was splitting open and if I moved too fast I would puke all over her. The best response I was able to give her was a groan, and that made her smile even bigger.

"Okay, lets start off simple. What is your name?" I told her and she frowned like I had gotten it wrong. "Lets try another one. What is your date of birth?" I had to think for a minute but I told her that as well and that brought an even bigger frown from her.

"Hmm…How about this one? What year did you graduate from the police academy?" Whaaaat the hell was she talking about? I never went to any police academy. I told her that and she looked at me like I was some rare zoo specimen. "I swear by all that is holy, I took care of you more times than I care to think about when you were an officer here. I always wondered what had happened to you and where you had gone off to, but I figured you had your reasons for leaving, but if you aren't going to be honest with me about who you are, Jay, you are putting your life in real danger."

Holy Hell…she thought I was J.D.? Oh shit, that meant that the people he and Edward had warned me about probably thought I was too. No wonder I had gotten my ass kicked so damn bad. I reached out and grabbed her hand, gently, and I looked in her eyes,giving her my best, 'Charm em and leave em wondering where their panties went" look, I am not him. My real name is what I told you. I am an actor and a musician. I do know him and Edward though, we are friends up in Portland. Please, help me. I am afraid I might be in danger from the man who tried to kill J.D. because I look like him so much. Please, call my family and let them know where I am at? J.D. and Edward will vouch for me."

She went pale and her hand started to shake. "Close your eyes and be quiet, right now!"

I didn't argue, I just did what she said and it was a damn good thing because just as I went limp and pretended to be out again, I heard the door open and several the sound of several large people wearing boots entered the room. "When is he going to be ready to go back to the facility?" One of the voices asked. The nurse gave a sad sounding sigh and replied, " Its not looking good right now, he just failed the latest round of status checks. He wont wake up and his GCS is still really low. Whatever you did to him, it must have been good. He needs to be at Barrows and I just don't understand what the holdup is getting him transferred up there is?"

The male made a sound like a cross between a spit and cough, "Hell! I didn't do nuthin more to him than he had coming. The lil faggot tried to get in my pants so he got what he deserved."

The nurse had started checking the I.v. tubing that was taped to my arms and I felt her pause and briefly squeeze my arm as she spoke again. "Did you not hear about his lab results? The poor guy was drugged! Someone in that crowd had slipped him a cocktail of everything from Ketamine to Ecstasy along with what we suspect was some Acid. The boy had to have been out of his mind. His lawyer was here just a little while ago collecting copies of the lab results and some of our statements from the night he was brought in. I had to give a statement about how you fellas sure seemed to be in a hurry to get him out of here and to the jail, even though he was obviously in need of Detox, and that you personally signed him out. That lawyer was practically drooling. His legal assistant is on her way by here in a little bit to take pictures of all his injuries. I don't know who the hell you managed to piss off this time, Lou, but I am sure glad I am not you."

The other people in the room shuffled about and the next thing I knew the nurse was telling me it was okay to talk again. I didn't know whether to be scared to death or angry as hell. I was virtually helpless. I had no idea who the lawyer was, but I could only hope that the band had gotten our guy involved. "Was that the truth? Is there a lawyer working on getting me the hell out of here?"

The nurse smiled at me as she went about checking the bandage on my head and then started to pull back the sheet and blanket to check something else. 'Oh yes, there most certainly is, he's some big hired gun out of Phoenix that is really expensive and who has a really impressive win record. He came here in person and saw the injuries and he decided to take the case pro bono. You are going to help bring attention to how brutally gay offenders are treated in this community and maybe put a stop to years of abuses that have gone on."

"GAY? I'm NOT GAY!" I couldn't help that I shouted a little bit and started getting excited. I didn't need my case splashed all over the media and I didn't need to get outed, when I wasn't even in the closet!

"Oh hun, its okay. I don't care who you love. I CAN tell you that you wont be loving anyone for a while though, its going to take a while for your wound where they ripped your piercing out, to heal up, so you are going to want to be down for the count until that happens. Those stitches have to have hurt like hell. it's a good thing the doc numbed you up really good. I bet you still cant feel anything down there.

They ripped…ripped my piercing out? .Fuck? Who the hell does that kind of stuff? I had been worried that Bella maybe would be pissed and want me to take it out, but then again, maybe she would have been flattered I had gotten a ring for her to have a little fun with, especially when showed her the leash attachments that I had gotten to go with it, but, "ripped out?" Oh my freaking God. I was in a world of hurt and with no idea who the hell was coming to save my ass, I did the only thing that seemed feasible at the moment, I just kinda faded out and went back to sleep.

**BPOV**

The good thing about knowing the right, wrong kind of people, is that they can make shit happen for you. Need a false identity that will get you into a hospital security ward? They will make it so. I had given them the basics that I was going to be posing as a legal assistant for Cullens attorney, and they had all the arrangements made and waiting on us by the time we reached the house at the outskirts of town that we were going to be staying at. The house we were staying at belonged to a friend of J.D.'s who somberly greeted us as we pulled into the drive. His ginormous size was intimidating, but he had a baby face with huge dimples. "Holy Shit! That poor guy about gave me a damned heart attack when I saw him on the booking line up. Even beat to fuck he is a dead ringer for you. Have you guys ever considered having a talk with dear old dad?"

J.D. glared at the giant, "Don't even joke about that, man. That poor guy doesn't want to be kin to me, you can see what good even looking like me has done him. Now, we have to figure out how the hell we are going to get him out of there."

"I've got that handled. I am going into the hospital this afternoon to take some pictures of his injuries for my "boss." While I am there, I am going to make sure that I rattle the cages of the media and the fans to get them all fired up about how badly he was hurt and the more discomfort I can bring onto the department, the less likely they are to try anything too hinky. I am then bringing in a specialist of my own to consult on his head injury and we are getting him shipped the hell out of there and hopefully back home."

The giant looked like he wanted to stick his fingers in his ears and pretend he didn't hear any of what I just said, but considering he was on his way out of that department in the next two weeks, and on his way into a job with Homeland Security that was going to get him and his wife moved clear across the country, I told him that he might want to leave the room for what I was going to say next so he would always be able to honestly answer he knew nothing about what was up with the rest of things.

After letting the boys know that they should be ready to depart fairly quickly once we got the word he was being moved out of town, I let them know I had relayed the information about Lou to the interested parties. I planned on sticking around just long enough to make sure that he knew that payback was a bitch, and so was I, but after that, I was going to be hot on their heels. I changed into my best legal assistant attire, and headed for the hospital. It was hard to find parking due to the motley assortment of cars and media trucks crowded into the hospital parking lot. The PD had set up crowd control, but the bands fans were obviously in residence and creating chaos. I could hear voices singing one of their more vaguely threatening songs about what could happen to someone when they went to sleep, as I hiked in from the South 40, and it made me smile.

"I am here on behalf of Attorney Bell to photograph the injuries to his client, Jasper "Doe" . What room is he in?" The receptionist looked like she had worked easier days and the fact the switchboard was lighting up constantly while I was trying to talk to her and the line behind me started growing right away didn't help her attitude at all.

"Who?" she attempted to snark at me. "We don't have any Jasper Does here right now."

I flipped the I.d. out at her and showed her the camera, "You know damn good and well who I am talking about, lady His identity is up for debate only because this town is run by idiots. So unless you want to find yourself named as party to the lawsuit that is about to get rained down on this one horse fucking town, you had better point me in my clients direction, right the fuck now before I make damn sure that the next 20 years worth of your minimum wage paychecks fund his beer cooler, you got that? Elba?"

She gaped at me like a fish for a minute before she pointed down a hallway and said, "Room 126, you will have to show I.d. to the nurse before you can get in to his room." I was already on my way down the hall before she finished speaking.

Looking through the glass in the door, I could see that he was the only one in the room, his slight figure covered by a hospital blanket. I could see that he had a bandage covering a large part of his head and my stomach clenched when saw that he was cuffed, spread-eagled to the bed instead of just confined with the standard leather lockable restraints around the ankles along with maybe a cuff for one wrist. What the hell did they think he was going to do? He weighed maybe a buck and a half and stood almost 5 foot nothing. It wasn't like he was even capable of fighting anyone while he was unconscious with a head injury. "May I help you?" A voice at my shoulder got my attention back on task. "I am here to take photographs of his injuries for the case." I showed her the I.d. and she smiled at me in a genuinely friendly manner.

"I am glad you are here. He was awake a little while ago, but quickly went back out, after becoming distressed over finding out that you folks were going to treat this as a hate crime." Oh I just bet he did. Poor boy, I was tempted to kick that lawyer in the dick when I met him for that one, but if it did get the charges dropped quicker, I may just let it slide.

"Can we …?" I gestured towards the room and she quickly pulled a key out of her scrubs top and unlocked the door. "I was just going in to change the dressing on his head and his groin injury, so you actually arrived that the perfect time."

Groin injury? What the hell was she talking about, "Groin Injury!" willing myself to remain calm, I asked, "It was not brought to my attention that he had a groin injury, could you explain?"

She grimaced, and I knew it was going to be bad. "You are of course going to see the catheter that we had to install due to him being unconscious, but when he was initially brought in from the bar fight he had a penile piercing. I remember seeing it because I was working an extra shift in the E.D, that night, and he looked like someone I used to know. I went over to help. We got him stitched up and tried to get him admitted for further testing, based on his behavior and the lump on his head, but the sheriffs officers were adamant he was in custody and going to jail. Apparently he ended up in a drunk tank cell to sleep it off until morning, but got sicker by morning. When he came in, the ring had been…removed. It took the plastic surgeon 11 stitches to close it up. He put a nerve block in so he wouldn't feel anything for a while, but when that wears off he is going to be in quite a bit of discomfort. The official word was that he hung it on something in the back of the patrol car."

When she uncovered it, I thought I was going to pass out. I don't faze easy, but seeing the wound that had been inflicted on him left me feeling like I needed to crawl up next to him and lay there for a minute. I guess it showed on my face because the nurse looked at me kind of concerned, "Are you going to be okay? He's out like a light, and he cant feel anything right now. Im being very gentle with him. Its soo strange, him looking so much like Jasper just makes my heart ache all over again for my missing friend."

I looked at her, reading her name tag. I snapped a quick picture of her with my phone and sent a picture message to J.D. asking, "Can she be trusted?" My phone started buzzing right away, it was J.D. calling me.


	10. Chapter 10

I couldn't believe it, all these years later and that crazy heifer was still working in that hospital? That was some luck on our part, I knew that not only would she take damn good care of the boy, she would run interference for him with Lou and hell, if we needed her to, she would smuggle his ass out of there. I called Bella's number right away.

"Bella, sugar, not only can we trust her, she is your new best friend. Let me talk to her a minute, okay?" She didn't say anything, but I could hear her breathing and then I heard a sniffle.

'J.D. they butchered him. They ripped the ring out and he's cuffed spread eagled to the damn bed." It's a damn good thing my phone is a tough one because if it wasn't it would have shattered under my clenched fist. Edward came over and put his arm around me, as the tension rolled off of me.

'Bella, let me talk to her, she's a great chick a I know she will help, she is the one who stabilized me so Edward could get me to San Diego, and I never even told her goodbye. If I can get back in her good graces, we will have more help than we need."

"I don't know if that's fucking possible, because it seems that right now we need a whole fucking bunch.!"

I heard Alice's voice in the background, "Did you get the pictures you needed of this part, I need to put a bandage back on." interrupted by Bella's telling her that someone needed to talk to her. All business and professionallike she got on the phone, "If you could wait about a half an hour I could call you back, but I am with a patient right now." I interrupted her, "I know you are gal, that's my friend you are taking care of there, and I know you are doing a damn good job of it." I heard her gasp and then a soft voice whispered, "Jasper? Is that really you?"

"Yeah hun, its me. I'm so sorry I didn't say goodbye to you, but it was thought you would be safer if you didn't know where I was. We didn't know if Lou would hurt you if he suspected you helped me, so I just moved up to Portland and started over. That fella you are taking care of is part of my family."

"Oh Jay, I missed you so damn much! When Edward left I begged him to tell me if you were okay, and he wouldn't even tell me if you were alive or dead, he just said to forget about you and forget that I even knew him! I knew he went to the Northwest, and I hoped you were with him, but I had no way of finding out without drawing attention to you and to myself, and I damn sure didn't want to do that. I have missed you boys so much and I hate that those rotten bastards hurt you and were able to get away with it."

I knew we had an in with her and I hoped that I would be able to rebuild my friendship with her once we had him out of there and safe, but for now I needed her to give me a breakdown of who and what we were dealing with and just how bad of shape he was in, she would be able to give us the most accurate picture of our chances of getting him transferred out, or what our other options were.

"Alice, how bad is he? Can we get him transferred or is he in truly bad shape?"

"He's improving quickly. I had to fudge the results of his last competency test in order to keep the goon squad at bay. I'm afraid if he gets sent back to the jail he will get an infection in his stitches or he might have another, "accident". I sedated him when he got overwrought earlier, so he will stay groggy for awhile, but if he's an actor, he needs to use that to keep them convinced he's still out of it. The doc on the case is worried that his ass is in the sling if he suffers any lasting damage, so if he stays gorked for long enough, the transfer might be easy to get pushed through. We need to talk to him and let him know what's up so he can be in on the act so he doesn't act to with it for anyone else."

She was a light at the end of the tunnel. With her on board I knew we would get him out of there unscathed, now all I had to do was get Bella to leave him there without killing anyone on her way out the door.

"Can I talk to the woman in the room with you? That's his woman and she's a might bit testy about things and I need to get her calmed down before she comes unglued all over things."

"So he really isn't gay? I would have thought that with the piercing and how pretty and well groomed he is that he had to be, especially after what he did on that video and the way he acts around that other boy in his band." At that point I heard Bella in the background. "He has a little boy with me. We are a family. I…I love him and I need to get him the hell out of here, please, please help us do that."

I think you could have heard a pin drop in the two rooms that were connected by that cell phone. Edward looked at me and grinned ear to ear as I grinned right back at him. What we had known all along was finally out in the open. We could hear Alice awkwardly trying to comfort Bella who was by no means a huggy person, as the line went dead.

I heard that. There is no way in hell I am going to let her know I am awake now, but my heart is about to bust out of my chest. Not only has the cavalry arrived, they love me. Laying there, hogtied with my junk in the breeze and thankfully numb as hell, I don't give a fuck about anything else. She loves me. Its going to be okay. J.D. and Edward are close by and she is here, so I am going to be getting rescued one way or another. I can just stay asleep. I feel her hand on my thigh as she moves around taking pictures of the damage those bastards did to me, and let me tell you buddy! It took all the thoughts of what she would do to me once we were out of here, to not get a little worked up and happy to see her. I heard her sniffle and that made my heart just drop into my guts, she was crying? Bella doesn't cry. Not over anything. But there she was crying over me. Holy fuck.

"We are going to get you out of here and I am going to make them pay for what they did to you and then you are in soo much trouble once you are better!" That was the Bella I was used to. She stroked my cheek and I figured it might be safe to wake up just a little as I heard the nurse finish her conversation with J.D. and come back over to wrap up my pecker and start on my head. I twitched and licked my lips, which were bone dry and cracked to hell and gone.

"Is he waking up?" Bella sounded hopeful as the nurse finished bandaging my parts and covered me up, only to start unwrapping my head.

"He might. This tends to pull the hair that wasn't shaved off and even when I am gentle, it still stings a bit, and he is responsive to painful stimulus."

OUCH! God Damned right I am! Holy Shit! I don't know how in the hell people endure waxing and shit like that. Having your hair pulled out by the roots hurts like hell!" I groaned and opened my eyes, to see Bella, red-eyed and worried looking, standing there looking at me. I tried to say her name, but because my mouth was so damned dry and I was so goofy feeling I couldn't do much more than mumble at her which seemed to just upset her more.

"Oh good Lord boy, you sure know how to get yourself in some messes don't you?" She bent down and hugged me, kissing my cheek and gently wiping the tear she got on me off. "I don't know if I should kick your ass for worrying me half to death or be thankful you are alive and kicking?"

I tried to smile at her, but nothing seemed to be willing to cooperate too well with me right then. I don't know what the hell that nurse had shot me up with last, but it was a hefty dose of goofy. I did mange to get my hand to twitch in the cuff and she reached up and held it as she bent down to talk to me.

"Listen to me. We are working to get you transferred to a hospital closer to home. You have got to use all your skills to make these people believe you are worse off than you are, okay? I don't care how undignified you have to be, but they cant find out you even are capable of understanding anything. You have to stay in the hospital until we get you away from them or the charges dropped. Alice, here is going to help us as best she can, and she's a friend, but trust no ones else. I hope to have you moved in the next day or so, but until then you just sit tight, sleep as much as possible and act as hurt and brain injured as possible. Don't answer any questions and damn sure don't act like you remember anything. Don't even try to talk to anyone.

Talk to anyone? That wont be hard. Apparently the happy drugs ole nursie shot me up with have rendered me incapable of coherent speech, but I look her in the eyes and try my best as I squeeze her hand extra hard, "love you". as the room faded to black again.


	11. Chapter 11

My heart just broke. He just pulled it out of my chest and broke it right in half. If I wasn't a calmer person I would be gathering him up right the fuck now and marching out of there with him in my arms and daring any motherfucker around to try and stop me, but I knew if I did that, all hope would be lost of getting the bastard that hurt him. I would be getting revenge for him. No one would ever need to know about it, but the bastard that hurt my boys was going to bleed and beg before this was over with, and instead of dying in the desert, I was going to see him in prison, at the mercy of the boys on the inside. Let us see then what became of him.

"Ma'am, if you want to get pictures of his head injury, the angle and light is better from over here. You can see where the doctor put a drain in his scalp to keep the fluid from building up and where the staples extend back to nearly the top of his ear. He also has a fracture of his cheekbone and a couple of cracked teeth that didn't show up on the initial x-rays, so those occurred after he was taken to the jail. The story was that he, "Resisted booking", but he was so out of it and hurt when he left here, and they had him trussed up like a prized hog, I don't buy that for a minute and I will damn sure testify to that."

His hair was gone. They had butchered it off and what was left was all jagged and bloody. He was going to have a scar on his head and more than likely on his chin as well. His agent was going to have 10 different fits when she saw him and he wasn't going to be happy when he realized that his moneymaker was forever marred. I snapped pictures of the injuries with not only the camera, but with my phone and I sent them to daughter with orders to hold onto them until she got notice to send them to the bands website for release to the fan club. She messaged me back with a tearstained frowny face and I knew she was just as upset and worried as the rest of us. Fully documenting all his injuries took a good 10 minutes, and left me shaking with rage. I wanted to revisit every single one of them on that bastard 10 times over, but I knew if I did, it would just defeat the ultimate goal of putting a stop to Lou, once and for all, especially for all.

"I am going to be sending in a doc here in a bit that will be taking over the case from the rent-a-doc that has been handling him. After my guy takes over, we should be able to get him transferred to another hospital pretty easily, would you be willing to go along as his nurse? I want to hire you and we will pay damn well. Are you able to relocate? After he is healed up, I will either hire you on as our nanny if you want or make sure you get a damn good position with a hospital in Portland I am tight with, either way, you will not end up on the streets."

Alice was shocked. She had been living where she was at for the last decade without really setting any roots down. She shared an apartment with another nurse, pretty much was a social recluse except for work and the occasional vacation, so she had money to spare, but no one to really care about or worry about. She had been considering moving, but she was stuck in a rut and now she was being offered a new start as the private nurse to a rock star and actor who happened to be friends with two men who had been friends she missed with her all her heart. It wasn't really rocket science. "When do we leave?"

That was taken care of. The lawyer had just texted to let her know that most of the charges had been dropped and that the district attorney was willing to consider letting the others go for a plea of , "No Contest" and a fine. Bella texted him back to take the deal and to have the damn goons get in to remove the cuffs off of him. She sent a shot of how they had him restrained to the lawyer so he would understand the reasoning for her wanting him released right away. Messages flew back and forth fast and furiously for the next half hour as she notified everyone that agreements had been reached, the lawyer had gotten the case handled, and she arranged a medical transport team to fly him and Alice along with the doc back to Portland where he would be taken care of in a private setting and the full extent of his injuries assessed.

Alice left the room and went out and quietly made arrangements for her shifts to be covered for the next couple of weeks, citing a "Family emergency", she also typed up a resignation memo and slipped it onto the pile on her supervisors desk. She called her roommate and let her know that she was going to be leaving, and that she should begin looking for a roommate, but that she would cover her part of the rent for the next couple of months because of the short notice.

Bella was sitting in one of the uncomfortable chairs in the room, watching him sleep and waiting for the deputies to come in and uncuff him from the restraints. She was stewing and debating what to do. He was going to be laid up for a while healing from all the injuries that had been inflicted on him. She wasn't the best at being sympathetic while someone had a booboo, but looking at him all laid up and injured, made her heart hurt worse than anything ever had before with the exception of when Spence had been sick with the flu. She got up and walked over and looked down at him, taking in the bruises all over his face and the splits on his lips. He stirred restlessly as mumbled, trying to find a more comfortable position, but the way he was cuffed made it almost impossible. She walked over and stroked his forehead, softly shushing and soothing him back to sleep. His wrists were badly bruised from the cuffs, and his ankles weren't in much better shape, in fact the damn cuff on his left ankle obviously hadn't been double-locked and it was tight enough that it was cutting into his skin and in danger of cutting off circulation. Bella was close to snapping.

The doctor arrived before the deputy did and his evaluation. It was hard to get a good read on him because the sedation had him very groggy, but in light of all the x-rays and c.t. results, he also felt that getting him to a better quality facility as soon as possible was important. He was going to bring in a plastic surgeon skilled in microsurgery to repair his scalp and face as well as the injury to his groin, which meant he would be sore longer, but that there would be less scarring and chance of any adhesions. The doctor saw the tightness of the cuffs and went to the door of the room and yelled down the hallway for the deputy standing guard at the end. "Officer! You need to get in here right NOW!" His tone left no room for argument and the officer quickly jogged down into the room as if he was expecting an escape attempt.

"What's the problem? Is he loose?" The officer looked disappointed that he had been summoned to a room where apparently there was no one to subdue.

"Of course he is not loose! How the hell could he be with the all the injuries you cretins have inflicted on him! You need to loosen that damn cuff on his ankle before he suffers permanent nerve damage and cant walk or dance anymore and I end up having to testify against you in court for inflicting torture and permanent injury and a person who was all in all a victim!"

The deputy wavered for moment and Bella waded into him. "You damn well need to take those motherfucking cuffs off of him right the hell now! A plea deal was reached an hour ago and he is no longer in custody, so you either get those damned things off of him and get the fuck out of my sight, or I will make damn sure that he owns you along with the rest of your shit department. Do it! Now! Call your fucking supervisor if you don't believe me you chode! This man is getting transferred out of here to a critical care facility where the injuries that you people inflicted on him can be handled properly before he is even further impaired, so you better make up your mind really fucking quick, Officer, because I'm already on the phone with AZ POST to explain all the photo images they just got emailed, and I will happily add your name to the complaint.

Bella started typing in the number to the rep she had already spoken to that morning as the deputy made his decision and began unlocking and removing cuffs and then exited the room with a sneer. Alice had re-entered the room along with the medical transport team and they quickly began preparing Jasper to be moved out of there and to the waiting ambulance.

"Alice, you guys are going to want to make sure you hide his face because all hell is about to break loose out there. Get him to the airport as soon as possible and on that plane and I will meet back up with you in Portland in a day or so, Edward will meet you at the airport and will he will be flying up with you guys. He will take you to my home when you are done getting him settled into the hospital up there and you can meet my daughter and his son. J.D. and I will be up in a day or so."

With that, Bella texted Jess, "Upload everything to the fansite, let them know he's critical ." She then started tweeting every image she had shot in the past little bit of his injuries,(except of his groin) though that would probably have caused the biggest riot, along with pictures of the deputy that she had snapped on the sly, and messages about just how serious his condition was. She could swear she heard the growl that went through the parking lot as the medical transport crew exited the room with him on the gurney.

"Edward, they are on the way to the airport now, I am going to drop off my rental car there if J.D. wants to pick me up at the counter." She followed the gurney out to the ambulance and watched as he was loaded in along with Alice and the doc, and thanking her lucky stars for things coming together she watched as they pulled out and quickly but carefully headed towards freedom as a large contingent of very angry fans began descending on the patrol cars parked in the hospital parking lot.


	12. Chapter 12

He didn't wake up as they loaded him on the plane to leave. Bella was right to be angry, the boy looked like hammered shit. Lou and his boys had done a number on him and I was glad to be getting him out of there, but I was damned unhappy to be leaving my boy behind to face them again. Yeah, he was prepared this time and he was the one that was planning on doing the sneak attack, but I was still really fucking unhappy about it.

"I will be okay, just take care of him and the rest of the kids and we will be home as soon as we have enough to make sure this shit ends now. You know who I have with me, she aint gonna let anything go wrong. We already have our flight booked home, so be ready to pick me up at the airport and you damn well better have me a good welcome home planned."

I ran my hand through his wavy hair and pulled him close to me, not give a tinkers damn who saw. We didn't live by their rules anymore, so they could kiss my ass. "Im gonna miss you. We haven't slept apart in a long damn time…maybe I ought to keep him company til you get home?" He punched me in the arm and muttered , "Asshole!" at me as Bella arrived in her rental car. Alice stuck her head out of the plane and said, "If you two are done making out, we need to get in the air the doc says, he needs to be back in a hospital and out of this town.".

"You better tell him to hold on, the boys woman is here and if she doesn't get to see him off, there will be hell to pay."

Bella didn't even look at us as she went straight to the plane and went inside. Alice deboarded pretty quick, so I could only imagine what was going on was pretty personal,(as much as it could be with the doc looking on), she clued us in that he was sort of awake and a bit lucid, so she thought they needed a moment.

She was here. I wasn't there anymore. Where the hell am I? Am I on a plane? This is good, except she is telling me she's not coming with me? What? She thinks she's staying here and fighting those guys? Something about J.D. getting hurt and the guy hurt me because of J.D., yeah…I got that much, but why is she staying? NO! She has to come with me. She cant stay here. I wont allow it. I got her and im not letting go. They cant make me. Who the hell is that guy? Edward is here? That's good, he will talk sense into her. Wait! Edward is saying J.D. is staying with her? Oh No fucking way! I am damn sure not letting go of her now, I don't care how many times she asks me to let go. Oh no way! Enough with the damn needles! Fuck me! She is in soo much troub..

**BPOV**

Well that went well. I didn't expect him to be lucid enough to argue with me about me staying to deal with the bastards that hurt him. Who knew he had such a strong grip? I am going to have a bruise on my wrist, but I cant blame him. He doesn't know the whole story and he doesn't know why this has to be stopped. The lawyer has been reviewing the footage from the fans and from the bar. He knows there is enough to build a good case for a hate crime just based on what was said as much as what happened after. What J. D. and I intend to do is to get the bastard to implicate himself in what he did to J.D. all those years ago. I want to go in and stomp a mudhole in the middle of his ass for all the rotten shit he has done, but instead we are going to make sure he implicates himself in everything. My friends in low places are just going to make sure that he's a little more willing to talk that he normally would be, and as a matter of fact, as soon as the plane leave the tarmac and they are away from here safely, we are headed to that bastards den to meet up with the boys in black and red and deal with the rest of this issue the way it needs to be dealt with.

**JDPOV**

It had been years since I had faced him. I wasn't relishing the thought of it, but I knew it needed to be done. Not only to put to rest the demons that haunted me, but to put a stop to him harming innocent people. I felt guilty that I hadn't stood up to him back then and made a case over what had happened to me, but I was so traumatized and so badly damaged and humiliated, as well as so destroyed by the fact that Edward chose to stay at first, that I just couldn't face the thought of a trial and of being labeled the man who had been not only beaten within an inch of his life and nearly emasculated, but who had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by multiple men in a brutal manner, tortured and then left to die out in the desert like an animal. If Edward hadn't suspected Lou and placed that tracking device in his truck when he did, I may have never been found in time. It was hard to let him get away with it then, and cowardly, but I had no definitive proof it was him and I had no proof of who the other three men were. I just knew they were big, mean and willing to hurt me. By the time I had gotten out of the hospital in San Diego, all evidence of what had gone on was gone. It would have just been my word against his. It had been decided it was best for all, that who I was died that day, and the new me was reborn far away.

Watching the plane take off, Bella and J.D. stood arm in arm, both resolved to face what needed to be done. One filled with wrath and the desire to seek revenge for the harm done to her loved ones, the other resolved to right an old wrong and to finally put an old demon to bed.

" J.D., you are going to have to keep me from killing him, you know that don't you? I am counting on you to be the voice of reason in all of this."

J. D. hugged her to him and kissed the top of her head, "I will gal, I will. You have to go home to that man and keep him the hell out of trouble." Bella hugged J.D. tightly, "Don't you do anything foolish either, if I don't bring you back perfectly in one piece, Cullen will lay claim to Jasper and I don't think that I would approve of that." They both laughed as they climbed into his rental car and headed out on to the highway that lead out into the desert and to retribution as well as redemption.


	13. Chapter 13

**EPov**

Thank goodness the boy slept almost the whole flight. I have a feeling there would have been a whole bunch of words and none of them pleasant coming out of him if he was awake when we took off. We had to stop in Reno to refuel and he got a little testy on us then, but I reminded him that he had a child waiting on him at home that he needed to start getting better for, and that just kind of took the wind out of him. "Bella is a big girl and you know how well she reacts to you trying to tell her what she can and cant do, so you need to settle down and focus on getting better. You are going to have a bunch of stuff to be dealing with when we get you back in the hospital, so don't go stressing yourself back into something extra."

**JPov**

I hurt. My heart hurt, my head hurt, and my dick damned sure hurt. I was trying not to be a wimp, but I couldn't help but to groan a little when all the jostling on landing to refuel got to me. " I am willing to be that nerve block has finally worn off, hasn't it? You poor thing, you have to feel like your bits have been skinned and stuck back on the wrong way. Let me talk to the doc and I will see if there is anything we can do besides sedating you again. I hate to keep knocking you out constantly." That nurse was sympathetic and I hoped like hell she had something good to make the fire in parts go out, because that shit just was not cool.

I really didn't mind being knocked out. My pecker hurt so damned bad that she could hit me in the head with a hammer if it would just make it stop. There was no position that was comfortable, not that I could move around very much because they had me wrapped up and strapped down six different ways from Sunday. "What day is it? And what time is it?" I asked to whomever was listening. I had lost all track of time and even days. As doped up as I had been, I wasn't even sure what had happened to the guys in the band or the equipment. I hoped everyone and everything had gotten out okay. I would be pissed as hell if my favorite guitar had gotten lost or damaged. Cullen smirked down at me, "Its exactly 3 days after you decided to take you and your guitarists relationship to the "next level." He grinned even bigger as I know I blushed a color of red not normally seen on human beings. " I gotta say there, young man…I am kinda hurt. I thought we had something special?" I was trying to not let him get to me, but it was not easy , especially when he leaned down, his breath right in my ear and said, "Soo, do tell there monkey boy, I was right about that whole swung from the both side of the tree thing, wasn't I? You sure looked like you knew a thing or two about a thing or two."

"Cullen! Leave the man alone or I will tell Bella you were tormenting her man and I have a feeling she is the kind of woman who might not take too kindly to that little bit of information!" Alice threatened to smack him in the head with her clipboard as she reboarded the plane. Cullen raised back up snickering and winked at me with a leer, "Lets just have that be our lil secret. I wont tell if you don't."

**JPov**

"Suck it, Edward! After its healed up and feeling back to normal, you can suck it!" It hurt to raise my voice that little bit, but we all got a little bit of a laugh out of it. The pilot announced that we were taking back off, and Alice let me know that the doc suggested she go ahead and sedate me until we hit Portland, and then they would probably take me right into to surgery to fix the problem and redo the nerve block so I wouldn't have any feeling in my parts again for a while. That was both good and bad news, but with nothing to look at but the ceiling of the plane or Edwards smirk, I just nodded at her and soon slipped right back to sleep, hoping that when I woke back up, my family would be back together and my parts wouldn't feel like they had been through a sawmill.

**EPov**

Yeah, teasing the boy that hard was pretty fucked up, but hell! When was I going to ever get that kinda opportunity again? Bella would damn sure not allow it now that her boy had a booboo. She was going to be unbearable when she got back and the boy was going to be going into lockdown, I just hope he was going to be able to deal with it. She might not think she was protective, but I had known her for a while and I had seen her with her daughter and around the officers under her command, she would jump in front of a bullet without hesitation and wade through hell to keep them safe, but she also tended to try and take on all the hard and dangerous shit herself to keep them out of harms way. That was the biggest complaint of officers serving under her, they said they felt like they were working for their mom and she wouldn't let them play with the big boys. Lil rock star was going to have to let her know he was still a big boy, if he wanted to, but then again, after getting his ass kicked the way he did, he may be up for some mothering for a while, who knows? I was planning on keeping the guest room cleaned out and available for either of them, depending on who got fed up with whom first. I was getting good a refereeing, and when I wasn't able to handle it, well…him and J.D. had a rapport that was just eerie and they were going to have to have a sit down and figure out just what the hell the reason was that they had soo many things in common.

**JDPov**

The drive was tense and quiet. Bella was still nursing a fierce rage and I could see that it would be very easy for her to let it loose in a bad way on Lou, and that would cost her and give him an out. I had to get her calmed down and to seeing the end result. "You know they hate cops in prison, don't you? He is not going to fare well. He's an old man and an asshole on the best of days that cant keep his opinion to himself about anything, he will piss off the wrong person and he will end up either spending all his time in protective custody or he will get beat to death in short order." She just gave me that grimace that told me she had heard what I was saying, but didn't really didn't put much weight to it.

"Tell me, J.D., how long did you spend in the hospital after he got done with you? How long did it take you to rebuild yourself and to recover all that you gave up while he went Scot free? How long have you lived with the scars and the pain of what he did? How long were you and Edward apart? What all did you give up besides your career with the department, your home, your friends, your NAME? I'm not stupid. I have done my research and if you think this anger is just because of what he did to my Jasper, you are wrong. I don't know what the hell connection you and my boy have, once we get this handled you can sort it out, but we are going to make this bastard pay, and I intend to revisit on him at least the suffering he inflicted on you, because you are just as much my family and no one hurts my family." Her phone rang right then and she answered it. It was the bikers calling to say that they had him in sight and were waiting for the go ahead.

It was a bit nerve wracking driving off into the desert to meet up with a bunch of 1%er, cop-hating, bikers who were waiting for word to begin the process of inflicting grievous bodily harm on a monster. We would both soon be culpable in a crime if we kept on the path we were contemplating and we both knew it, but we were skating a thin line. It would be nice if he implicated the other 3 who had been with him when he took me, but of all the things that were done to me, he was the most diligent in making sure I suffered and he was the one who inflicted most of the grievous injuries. If not for one of the others stopping him, he would have castrated me, so I guess letting them escape from this ,"Justice" would be my way of thanking them, but what were we doing? Were we proving those that say, "Cops make the best criminals", right? It felt like it, but then again it also felt like a long owed debt was finally getting paid, and that something that had been left undone was finally getting wrapped up.

We reached the turn off to the enclave where they said he had been spotted, and Bella handed me a pair of sunglasses and a ball cap. "Put those on and don't let him see you right off the bat, I want the shock to be something that lingers for awhile." I did as she asked, and as we stepped out of the car and my hands started shaking. Dammit. Bella saw and reached over and grabbed my hand, "Are you ready for this? I want to kill him even more, seeing how this is affecting you, so if you aren't able to be there, we will just leave him in their hands and drive away and let them handle it as they see fit. Its up to you."

"No, call them and tell them to stay back unless we call them in, I want to do this on our own and I want to do it the right way that leaves our hands clean. He is going to confess because he will see it as the right thing to do to save his ass, not because he has been beaten and tortured into it, leaving us just as dirty as him. Lets do this the right way and walk out of here clean. Hell, the shock of seeing me may give the old bastard a heart attack. I'm turning on the recorder, so check yourself."

Curtains moved in the front window and we could hear someone moving around in the ratty trailer. Bella made a quick call to the bikers telling them to wait unless they heard shots or she called for help, and we walked up and knocked on the door.

**EPov**

Home! Well, almost. Getting the boy settled in at the hospital took a little bit, and then I went by and made sure that Jess and the baby were doing okay before I had to go back to the hospital to pick up Alice and then take her to get some essentials so she could get settled in for the evening at Bella's place. I don't think that is going to work. Bella's apartment is not going to be big enough for a recovering rock star, a teenager, a baby and a live in. We have plenty of room over here and I think she would fit in fine. I even have a job in mind for her once she's done getting the boy all healed up and haired over. The department has needed an on staff nurse for physicals, blood draws and all kinds of things and I know I could find the money for her, so I intend to make it happen. She was pretty fucking brave or crazy to just jump ship and leave all her shit to come up here with no warning. Granted, she's going to go back and pick up her pictures and stuff in a few days, but still! Pretty damn awesome and I still owe her for saving my boy all those years ago and not killing me for basically telling her to drop it and never ask about him again when she wanted to know what had happened to him. I am still shocked she didn't kick my ass when she saw me. I never told her I was leaving, I just left. I was a dick. I should have known she wasn't gonna let that shit slide.

"Okay sweetheart, you are in good hands now. They are going to do your surgery in the morning, and I will be here when you get back to the room to get you settled in and to see if you need anything, but I have a feeling that once they get you numbed back up you wont be needing much of anything before your family is back together."

She's a nice lady. I don't get half of what the hell she is yapping about, but I did catch something about my family? "Where is my boy and my woman? I need 'em"

"Oh honey, I am sure we can arrange to get your son in to see you for a little while tomorrow, but I don't know when she will be back. I am sure you will be her priority as soon as she gets back though. I bet she wont even go home before she comes to see you. Now these nice folks are going to clean you up and get you ready for tomorrow, so don't you worry about a thing.

"Okay, whatever. Tomorrow. Okay. What?"

Alice smiled down at him, he was going to be well taken care of, she didn't know who the hell for sure who all boy was other than some small-time musician, but he obviously wasn't some poor hick from the sticks, they had been met by a private transport company and he was handled with kid gloves as they were delivered to a private hospital that was nicer than any hotel she had ever stayed in. He had not just a private room, but a private suite, so if anyone wanted to stay over with him, they would have 5 star accommodations. As she left the room with the night staff taking over, they were getting ready to finish shaving off the butchered hair, so it would be even when if grew back out and then they were going to give him as much of a bath as he could handle. It was going to be the best evening that boy had seen in about a week, while she was going to settle an old score. " Cullen, I'm done if you want to come get me."


	14. Chapter 14

**EPOV**

Alice didn't have much to say as we drove to the close by shopping center so she could get some things to make herself comfortable until she could get her stuff from Arizona. I should have known something was brewing, but one never knows with women. Some of them are criers and will tell you right the hell off and some will just not talk about anything, instead, they sul up and hold it in until they explode all over you like a damn fragmentation grenade.

Alice was a grenade who had spent about the last 7 years building up a good explosion. I will give her credit, she waited until we were at Bella's and no one was around before she did it, but when she waded into me, it was with malice, forethought and lots of harmful intent.

"You no good, rotten, dirty, son of a bitch! How could you? I thought he had either died or killed himself! Would it have really been that God Damned hard to just let me know he was okay? You didn't even say goodbye!" She punctuated each sentence with either a punch or a kick and I knew I was going to have a bunch of bruises the next day.

WOMAN! Would you STOP! We have an audience! Jess was standing in the doorway with Spence in her arms, staring at the commotion like she was watching an episode of COPS going down in the front yard.

Alice finally stopped swinging and kicking me long enough to look up, and she flushed.

Jess came out and handed me the baby, and he promptly smacked me in the face with a gooey hand as Jess shook hands with Alice. "So, let me guess…you must have some great stories to tell me about Captain Knucklehead? Come on in and Ill get you something to drink and eat and you can dish."

I was screwed. Stuck up here alone with 2 crazy women, a gooey, grumpy almost toddler, and a banged up lil Rock Star while my boy and Bella were facing a monster I should have put in the ground years ago. I would give anything to trade places with them.

**BPOV**

I have never wanted to pull the trigger on someone so bad as I wanted to pull it on the bastard standing in the doorway of that trailer. He leered up and down at me and J.D., scratching the gut that was hanging over the tops of his dirty boxer shorts. The reek of booze poured off of him and he was swaying on his feet.

"Yeah? What do you want? Are ya lost or something? Highway is back that direction." he pointed crookedly with the pistol he was holding in his hand and it traced across my body. It took all I had to not flinch, especially since his finger was on the trigger, but I had to remain calm because I could see J.D. was struggling to not erupt.

J.D was standing there, his hands clenched into fists, his shoulders tight, his entire body telegraphing to anyone with an ounce of intelligence that he wanted to hurt the man in front of him, and hurt him badly. I wanted to let him, but I also knew that would go against everything that J.D. had wanted to achieve. He wanted justice, not pure vengeance.

I said to him, we are looking for so information and we were wondering if you might be willing to put down the gun and talk to us for a little bit?"

"Wha? Oh! This thing? You don't need to worry about this thing." he looked down the barrel of it and then dropped it to the ground.

"C'mon in, I got lots of information about lots of things." He turned and staggered back into the filthy trailer, and I quickly stepped in after him to make sure he wasn't going after another gun as J.D. bent down and picked up the gun on the ground, clearing it and sticking it in the waistband of his jeans.

The man flopped down on what had once been a couch, but was simply a disgusting pile of trash and porno mags covered with indeterminate stains. His boxers gapped in horrible ways and I tried to not look, but …ugh! He scratched his gut and smacked, staring blearily at me and J.D., "So who are you and what the hell do you want?"

I nodded to J.D. who removed his cap and glasses and he said, "Well Gunny, we want to know, have you figured out that boy you beat up on the other day wasn't Jasper Whitlock?"

The man on the couch stared at J.D. and he grimaced, "I knew I shoulda killed your ass all those years ago, but that stupid son of a bitch Reynolds was sure we would get the needle for doing you."

Huh…who woulda thought it would be that easy to get a confession and a name that fast off of him? J.D. was standing there staring at him.

"Reynolds was involved ? But he was on my team." J.D. looked stunned and I was concerned he was going to lose it.

'No shit he was on your team, and he hated your fucking guts. You made him look like and asshole on a pretty regular basis, so he decided to repay the favor. Evans and Martinez were along for the ride, they knew you would be a tight hit. I was just glad I got a piece of your ass before Evans did, I'm surprised you are able to walk after that shit."

I winced. J.D., to his credit, didn't react to the taunt. He simply shrugged and said, "I guess I was just tougher than you give me credit for. What about all those kids that were found in the barrels, what the hell was that about?"

"Oh, you mean the canned queers? Who the hell cares? Little faggot runaways come into my county, spreading their diseases and shit. We were doing a community service by cleaning up the town."

Why? Why the fuck would you be so fucking evil? That boy you hurt a few days ago, he didn't do anything to you. He's got a family and loved ones and you nearly killed him! What the fuck? I was so damned angry I was shaking and if I had the gun in my hand that J.D. had in his waistband, I would have taken care of the bastard for once and for all, screw the repercussions.

He had to audacity to laugh. Fucking laugh. " I thought that lil cocksucker was you, Whitlock. I knew you were still alive, and I just figured you'd gotten cocky enough to come back and test the waters. I never knew you had a fucking brother. Tell me, is his ass as tight as yours was?"

I lost it then. I lunged at him to punch him in the face but to my surprise J.D. stopped me by grabbing me around the waist and holding me back.

"Bella, We have him. We are done. If I can walk the fuck out of here and do the right thing, then so can you. He's not going anywhere except to prison. Come on."

J.D. kept a tight grip on me, and I wanted to get loose and just rip the bastard on the couch to pieces, but I knew he was right. I had a child to think of as well as a boy waiting on me to come home.

"Do whatever you think ya gotta do. It aint gonna make a bit of difference to me. My time is up one way or another because of the cancer. By the time this goes to trial Ill be in the ground, so do your worst. I don't give a fuck." He took another slug of his beer and scratched his gut. "Guess that takes the wind outta your sails just a little , don't it?"

J.D. turned and looked at him and said, "No, not really. You have this shithole, miserable pit you dwell in, with no one who will give a shit when you die, except to celebrate. I have a family, people I love and who love me, and a nice home with the man I love. You have and are, nothing."

We backed out the door and quickly walked to the car, wanting to be out of range of any drunken attempts to stop us. J.D. quickly dialed a number on his cell phone and began talking to someone. "Yes, I will be transferring you the file via mms in just a few minutes. He named all the other doers and implicated himself in the barrel murders as well. No, we are on our way back to Portland. Let me know."

He hung up the phone and stared straight ahead as I was tearing down the highway towards the city. I called my contacts with the bikers and asked them to just keep an eye on the old bastard to make sure he didn't make a runner of it. They were happy to be getting information on a huge scandal that could take down the entire department, and that would surely be a black eye to the city for a long time to come, so they agreed to keep a couple of guys in the area.

J.D., are you okay? He didn't look at me, staring out the side window, his hands restlessly fidgeting on his knees.

"What all do you know about what happened to me?" His voice was soft and he sounded as if he was fighting to keep himself under control. I signaled and quickly pulled over, putting the car in park. I reached over and grasped his hands.

I knew pretty much everything there was to know. I had found out from Alice while we spoke in my Jaspers room and I had gotten the full extent of the story from Edward not too long after I had hooked up with my Jasper because he was weirded out about the similarities in appearance and the name thing, as well as the fact that J.D. had been a fan of my Jasper before we ever hooked up.

J.D., I know you are probably the strongest and bravest man I have ever known. I know you have lost more than most men will ever lose, but I know you overcame it with strength and dignity and that I am very proud to have you as part of my family.

"Bella, I'm not strong. I want to go back and kill him. I want to go back and put a bullet in his face for what he did to your boy and all those other innocent boys he killed."

My heart was breaking for him, he had suffered more than anyone should ever have to suffer, and we both knew that the old bastard was going to not truly face up to what he had done. I wanted to go back and visit upon him all the things he had done to J.D. and ten times worse, but then that would have damned me as surely as anything.

J. D., we put a stop to it. No one else will end up a victim of him and his pack of savages. We will be able to hopefully get those other bastards picked up wherever they are and they will answer for what they have done as well. You are alive. My Jasper is alive. We are on our way out of this shithole and back to our families to heal and to figure out just why in the name of Gods green earth, you and my fella favor each other so damn much that even a waste of skin like that old bastard could see it and be confused.

The feds moved in and arrested Gunny Lou based on the recording we supplied them. It was admissible in getting the warrant because its legal to record someone as long as one person involved in the conversation is aware of the recording, but when they went out to arrest him, Gunny made it easy on them, he bragged about all he had done and he implicated the men that had been involved with him.

Two of them were picked up within a couple of weeks, but the third had been killed in a bar fight a couple of years previously. A search of the property uncovered more than enough proof to implicate the men in more than half a dozen disappearances and murders, but the most horrifying piece of evidence uncovered was the fact that they had recorded themselves committing the acts. It was the nail in the coffin of all of them, but the thing that almost broke J.D. He and Edward had been asked to view part of the recording for identification purposes, and it was days before either of them were able to smile again.

Gunny was right about his diagnoses, but wrong about his prognosis. He survived to face trial, though jail was a less than pleasant experience for him and the quality of medical care he received soon took the smirk right off of his face. He survived to be sentenced to the toughest prison in Arizona, the Steiner unit, and somehow his paperwork got messed up and he ended up in general population for a few days. He almost didn't survive that. He spent weeks in the prison hospital recovering and they never could remove his colostomy, so he went to isolation, where he lasted less than 3 months. The others all shared similar fates, but being younger, they are still there, still living the hell they created for themselves.

"Ouch! Woman! Jeesh! That is attached to a very vital part of me! Please! OWWW!"

He was in fine form this morning. Having been released to home care, and needing his bandages changed, Jasper was letting everyone know he was not happy with the state of affairs. He was all in all a tolerable patient, but that was the one part he whined about.

"Well I guess you will think twice before you go sticking any other metal through your pecker ever again, wont you?" Damn! Alice was not cutting him any slack and Bella was trying hard not to laugh. Now that she had him home, and she knew he was going to be fine, she had been almost as merciless on him, though she spent every night cuddled up around him, protecting him and listening to him breathe. She had taken a few weeks of her banked up vacation time to help take care of him as well as me and J.D. as we navigated our way though dealing with all issues that came up from J.D. finally facing that bastard and then us seeing the tape of what Gunny had done to him when he was a prisoner.

J.D. had gone and sat in by Jaspers hospital bed for a couple of days when he first got back. He had given Bella some time alone with her boy, but when she left, he was there, standing guard. I don't know if the, "Brother" comment had struck a nerve or if the fact they had both suffered at the hands of a monster, or if J.D. was just looking out for the boy because they were friends and he had liked that boys music for longer than he had liked me, was the reason, he never would say, but he stayed there until Jasper woke up and then they talked for a few hours about something pretty important and neither of them would ever say anything about it other than it was, 'Family business'.

Neither of them would ever give any of us a straight answer about whether or not they were really related, but we decided to just assume it because while J.D. wore the lines and marks of a man who had borne much in his short life, the shaved head and scuff marks on his own face made Jasper his bookend, and the name thing was just too much of a coincidence.

"I swear that woman gets meaner each day! My pecker is never gonna work right again if she keeps on tearing at it when she changes the dressings!" He came hobbling out of the bedroom, wearing his sweat pants barely hanging on his ass, scowling over his shoulder at Alice who stuck her tongue out at him as she walked behind him carrying the dirty bandages.

"You better behave yourself, boy! I will be taking the staples out of your head in the next couple of days and it would be a pity for forget if I was taking out or putting more in."

He squawked like he believed her and looked at us with his eyes all wide and scared looking, "Did you hear that crazy heifer! I'm telling you, she has it out for me!"

**JDPOV**

Spence started toddling towards him and I scooped him up and carried him over to give his daddy a kiss. He smacked me in the face and started yammering, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Want nuther Daddy!" That always made Edward and Bella chuckle a little, and it had to be confusing for the poor kid having two men in his life that favored each other, but we were one big happy family no matter what, so he would sort it out eventually. "Thanks J.D." Jas couldn't hold the boy yet and he couldn't have him too near his face for long because he did tend to grab at things like bandages or staples, so I would scoop him up and let him give his daddy nice kisses while his dad got settled on the couch next to his woman who was teasing him.

**EPOV**

"Aww, did she make your booboo owie all worse? Poor puppy, come here and I will kiss it all better". Bella talking baby talk to him was just surreal and kinda gross but it made him grin and cuddle up against her like an overgrown kid.

"Okay, that was just too much information there, Swan. And besides, Alice told him he has to keep that under wraps for the next 6 weeks, so its best you don't do that, though when it does heal up I seem to remember he told me I had first crack at it."

**JPov**

Wha? I did no such thing! I have no idea what the hell you are talking about! I honestly had no idea what the hell Cullen was talking about. The only person getting a sample of the goods was gonna be my woman but, ow…ow..ow! It was not the time to be thinking about that. Things were still really sore down South and it was going to be a while before I was up to getting busy again. Considering the story I had been told about what had happened to J.D. at the hands of that very same monster, I know I got off really damn lucky to escape with my life. I would never take my freedom and my life for granted ever again. I may have a few scars on my head on my parts, but compared to what J.D. had, they were nothing. He said that he always knew that word carved into his back underneath the really fucking cool as hell monkey, would come in handy some day, and he said that it convinced Bella faster than anything else that my ass was on the line in many unpleasant ways. Now that those bastards were taken care of though, we were going together to see my tattoo artist and we were going to get that taken care of once and for all.

It was funny, how many times we had met over the years and not even realized it. We had quite a talk about things and just figured it was some weird fate that made all that happen, I do know he was pretty damn important to me and we had a bond.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N Ever had one of those weeks where you wish your whole life had an editor? Yeah...this is one of them. FFN has been giving me fits lately, I haven't been able to reply to my reviews because it shows the link doesn't exist. I apologize for that, I dont know if its them or me. I may have messed up my computer watching American Horror Stories in places I shouldn't be lurking...**

**Regarding the relationship of J.D. and Jasper AKA Lil Rockstar, I am going to leave that as one of the great mysteries of Texas. I am going to say this, there is a "Look" that is pretty common to Texas men,(even some imports claiming Texan), and there are more than a few fellas running around out there that favor each other very strongly. In fact, it can cause the runiation of a perfectly good fangirling moment when you are scrolling through the latest pics of the hotties and come across one you would swear was of your cousin. Maybe they are other side of the blanket brothers, maybe shirttail cousins, maybe its just one of those things, its like my sex scenes, I prefer not not whack you in the face with it. J.D. was Jasper in Long Distance. Jasper is Lil Rock Star maybe its coincidence, maybe not? **

**Im debating how much longer to draw this out, I could wrap it up in a chapter or two or carry it on into more, it just depends. Let me know what ya'll think. I promise not to whop up on him anymore though, I have other stories for that I am working on. **

**Bpov**

What was I gonna do with the boy? He was slowly starting to get better, but the experience had left him a little nervous about going out anywhere, in fact he had become quite the homebody. His hair was growing back out slowly, and it didn't look too bad but he was insistent that he looked horrible and couldn't risk being seen in public. He had spoken to his band boys and his agent, but he wasn't willing to go hang out with them or even go play music with them in a local club. About the only place he had gone was to the tattoo shop with J.D. where they had spent the better part of 3 days getting the word on J.D.s back covered over with a beautiful multi-colored sunrise. I tried to get him to go to his check ups on his own or go to the grocery store for me while I was at work, but I would get home to find that he had mysteriously either, "Forgotten" his appointment, or had gotten too busy to go. I was ready to call shenanigans when J.D. caught me at the office one afternoon.

**JDPOV**

I recognized all the signs he was showing, shutting himself off from the world, as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs whenever we did manage to drag him out of the house to go anywhere, quick temper that would swap back to sulled up and depressed in the blink of an eye, He was down on himself about his looks because of he scar on his head even though it wasn't noticeable to anyone but him, and he just was withdrawing from everyone and everything. I could still get him to hang out and talk to me, but we had our bond that no one else got. He had gotten his physical injuries treated and they were almost healed up, but the boy had some psychological hurts going on that I knew all too well.

Bella, we gotta have a lil chitty chat about Jasper, you got a minute? She looked up from whatever report she had been reading over, and said, "Sure J.D., I have a feeling I know what you are going to say and I have been hoping you would have an idea of how to deal with it."

So she saw it too? That was good because it meant she would be willing to help me get him some help.

Bell, I can only do so much with him. If we spend to much time around each other in the stressed out state without getting a counselor or a neutral person involved, then we are going to start feeding each others anxiety and that's a bad scene for all involved. Has his sleep been screwed up as well?

She nodded, "He's had a few nightmares, but I've been able to calm him back down. I hate to say it, but I also suspect he's been self medicating a little with not only more booze than usual, but I know I smelled weed the other day. I've been tolerant because he's not taking any of the prescription pain killers the docs prescribed him, but I'm concerned."

She was right to be worried. The boy had been though something that someone like him had no tools to be able to deal with. I had been through war and all kinds of shit growing up, so I had more experience in the horrors life had to offer, but he had been sheltered and privileged with no idea of the real monsters that lurked outside of a movie theater.

"How do you want to approach it, Jay? If I say anything to him lately, he just gets defensive and quits talking to me. I don't think hard assing him is the way to go with this, because he's been through enough stress for the time being. Should I get his family involved?"

Bella, Hun…we are his family for all intents and purposes right now. They don't know what all he went through, and they really don't need to know what could have happened to him, no parent needs that kind of worry. Why don't you let me try talking to him man to man? I have been going back to talk to someone lately and I think it might do him a world of good to have a neutral 3rd party to listen to all his worries and anger, and now that he's starting to get healthy again, I'm going to start taking him to the range with me. Nothing like popping off a few boxes of rounds to make a man feel a little more in charge of things. I think he will be willing to talk to me and I probably have the best chance at getting him out of the house without a whole bunch of drama. Ill just make it a non-negotiable thing, but I need the rest of ya'll to have all the excuses gone, so count on taking the baby and either taking a shopping trip to Seattle on Friday or just be prepared to see him carried out baby style if I have to, but I don't think its gonna go that far, I'm going to try reason and if all else fails I kidnap his guitar.

**JPov**

'They don't fucking get it. I cant be seen out looking like this. I don't need anything out there right now, and I am still not feeling really great. Alice kept flipping me shit about going and getting checked out if I still felt bad, but it wasn't THAT bad. I just wanted to be left alone for awhile, until I felt more like myself. I am perfectly fine hanging out with my boy and just taking care of the house now that Alice has moved in with Edward and J.D.. Its gotten pretty quiet around here now that Jess has gone off to college in Seattle and its just me and Bella and the boy, so I kinda enjoy the peace and quiet, except when it gets too quiet. I know Bella didn't appreciate the security system I had installed at first, but she has to see my side of things, my boy is here, and you never know who is gonna come creepering around. I love my fans, but there are some that are kinda fucking scary, and if they ever found out about things, well…who the hell knows what they would do? Its just better to be safe than sorry.

"Hey J.D.! How's it going?" I was always glad to see him. He would come over and just hang out and play guitar or shoot the shit about next to nothing, or we would whip up on this buddy of his on Xbox live together, but he never really gave me a hard time, he was quiet most of the time, but when he did talk, he had important shit to say so I tried to listen up and not blow him off, after all, he had done a fuckton of living out in the world and you had to respect a self-made man who had survived like he did.

**JDpov**

Oh hell yeah, he was stoned. I was surprised Bella had let that shit fly. The old her would have not only kicked his ass six different ways from Sunday, she would have searched him,(probably including a cavity search), until she found the shit and then forced him to eat it as she kicked his ass out the door, the new her? The new her still didn't condone it, but she looked the other way and tolerated a lot of things from him that she would have skint him for in the past. She came close to losing him and she had finally realized a thing or two about a thing or two.

'What's up, Bubba? How about you throw some britches on and we take a drive?" He was standing there in nothing but a ratty pair of Bella's old police academy shorts that didn't cover up much of nothing and they were so thin that I don't know how he kept from freezing his bits off as he stood there in the doorway. He immediately started hemming and hawing with me as I pushed past him into the house.

"I don't know J.D., I'm really not up to going out today. I am pretty tired."

"Ill just bet you are, sitting around on your ass all day long smoking dope will do that to ya. Now, find yourself some britches and get dressed, we have somewhere to be in about 20 minutes.

**JPov**

" He stood there looking at me with his arms crossed looking every bit the cop I knew he was. I guessed I had better do what the hell he said or I was going to find myself at the receiving end of some unpleasantness. Uh, do I have time for a quick shower?

"You do. But if you try locking yourself in that bathroom I will take the door off the hinges and carry you out of here baby style." Okay…so there went that idea. I went and got some clothes and grabbed a quick shower while he sat on the couch playing my favorite guitar.

"I don't know where my wallet is. I don't have my I.d. or anything." yeah, I was grasping at straws, but I really didn't want to go anywhere. I was backing towards mine and Bella's bedroom, but before I could get to the door he was up and standing right in my face.

"Bubba, listen to me. You trust me don't you?" I nodded at him. I did trust him, actually as much or more than I trusted Bella. "Okay then, this is how its going to go down. We are going to walk to that door, then through it, and you are going to go and get in my truck and go with me. We are going to get some things sorted out that need sorting out. It can be just me and you, or if you want, I can call Bella and she can come along as well, but for today I think it would be best if you just come along with me." he had his head cocked to the side, looking at me all intense and shit. It was a little on the scary side, so I decided it was best I just do what the hell he said.

"I'm gonna go with you, J.D." He smiled at me, one of those really rare bright smiles that was probably what made Edward toe the mark for him. "Good man!" He chirped at me, "Now, lets go."

**Bpov**

When I got home they were still gone. It didn't look like a fight had occurred, and his guitar was in its usual place. My old shorts were finally in the dirty laundry so apparently he had decided to finally take a shower too, so some kind of progress had been made. I decided to call the Capt to see if he knew anything.

Hey, are the kids still playing together or what?

"Well hello to you too, Swan, Yes. I have my Godson, and Yes, he is fine. My day was good. How was yours?"

'All right, all right! I know I'm uncivilized and ill mannered. Sooo where the hell are our boys? Are you coming over for dinner? Where is Alice?' He lived to be difficult to me sometimes, I swear to God!

"Alice left today to go to AZ to get her stuff. She wont be back until next week so we are going to have to juggle Spence. Yes, I am coming over for dinner, and I'm starving, so what are you cooking? The boys are still gone. I got a text from Jay a little while ago saying things were going okay, so I would count on them for dinner too."

Okay, dinner is going to be spaghetti, you bring the bread and don't get the boring stuff, get the stuff with the cheese in it and be here in about an hour. Do you want meat or meatless?

I heard him laugh and I knew that question was dumb the minute I asked it. Okay wise ass, You want the meat, just like always…gross. Don't think those kinda thoughts around my son, you are gonna turn him into as big of a perv as you are.

Getting dinner started didn't take long, I got the meat thawing and the pans on the stove. Just as I got ready to start the salad I heard the door open and in walked the boys in question. They both looked a little ragged, but none the worse for the wear. I went and gave my boy a hug and a kiss and J.D. a quick hug.

"So how is everything?"

**J.**

How is everything? That is a loaded fucking question. The poor guy is a walking bundle of nerves. His whole body telegraphed that he was ready to flee like a crackhead when I pulled out of the driveway and headed towards the meeting. His buzz was obviously gone and I hated being his buzz kill, but I intended to make sure he didn't need that buzz anymore.

"So, Bella's been letting you get high in her house? You must have a magic pecker or something for that to happen. Just a few short months ago we both know that shit wouldn't fly.

"I'm not…" Jasper , Who the hell do you think you are talking to? I work narco. I can spot and smell that shit a mile away. I'm not gonna bust you for it, obviously, but you know better. You could get your woman into a world of shit having that in her house. What if you got busted buying it? Do you want to go back to jail and have that hit the media? I know you've been having some problems. I have had the same problems. I know how to fix them and that is where we are going.

He slumped in the seat, glaring out the side glass as if the whole world was out to get him. "I keep thinking about all the "What ifs". What if Edward hadn't seen that video and you guys hadn't come looking for me? What if they hadn't taken me to the jail, but to where they took you?" His hands were shaking a bit and even though I didn't often touch him, I reached over and put a hand on his shoulder.

Jasper, I did the same thing. "What if I had fought harder? What if Edward hadn't put that tracking device on Gunny's truck? What if he had just gone ahead and killed me right there?" You cant keep doing that. It will make you crazy in short order, as well as those around you, so I'm taking you to meet some folks who helped me to work through that and we are gonna get this fixed, okay? Its confidential, no one knows who you are, they think you are my little brother. We will start this together and there are some other things we will do together that I think will help you as well, but no more dope and no more just hiding in the house, okay?

He looked at me like I had just told me he was top of the charts, "You have been through this and its fixable? Thanks fuck! I thought I was going to lose my damn mind."

**Jpov**

Finally! Being able to talk to J.D. about all the crazy shit rattling around in my head helped so damn much I just couldn't believe it. Knowing that he had been through the same shit and survived it also helped. I mean, hell. He's was ten kinds of tough and all that, but he was a lot like me, so if he could get through it, then I knew I could too. Him busting me on the weed kinda sucked. I felt like I had let him down or some shit like that. When we got done with the meeting with the folks that were going to help me and headed back to the house he said, "Now, Bubba, I am gonna have to go a little bit of a cop on you here. Where is the weed, how much do you have and can we get it the fuck out of Bella's house now?" I cringed, I had a couple of oz's stashed in my boots in the back of the closet, so I told him and he just shook his head in amazement. " I am still shocked you have your parts relatively intact. You know that woman loves you, don't you?" I did know and I told him that as soon as we got to the house we could get it and get rid of it.

**Bpov**

The boys disappeared down the hallway to the bedroom shortly after arriving home and I figured it was best to not even ask. I heard the toilet flushing a few minutes later and I knew what had taken place as J.D. came walking into the kitchen to fetch a couple of beers from the fridge and gave me a knowing smirk. I was going to have to make sure I rewarded the boy extra special later on.

Cullen finally made it over with my son and the bread, handing them both over to Jasper. "You might want to stick that in the oven to warm it up a bit. The bread, not the boy" he said as he nudged Jasper in the side. "Gee, ya think? Jasper grumbled at him as he set the bread on the counter and began ticking Spence in the sides and blowing raspberries on his neck. I went ahead and grabbed the bread and put it in the oven, figuring if I waited on boys to handle things the dinner would be half eaten before the bread was warmed back up.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N I had chapter 17 all written and it was a good one, but my laptop is dying a slow and miserable death that causes it to randomly shut down and lose things that I had written. I lost 3 chapters of "Paying the Piper" even though they were saved, a brand ne story that was done and several chapters of this one. I have had to go back and rewrite so it will be awhile before I can get another one up. The fact I didn't chunk the damn thing against the wall is a miracle in this being said, I hope ya'll enjoy this bit of perversity and fun. **

He was going to be cleared for take off! Oh happy day! It had been so damn long since I had hit that, I had seriously considered buying stock in Duracell to get some dividend for all that I had been spending. That was the downside of getting used to getting regular, quality sex, was your body got used to it and expected it, and missed it when it wasn't around. He had other means to take care of business for me, but that had never been my favorite solution to the problem, as I was pretty much a steak and taters kinda woman. Going with him to the appointment I had tried to pretend I was along just to make sure he actually remembered to go when J.D. had to beg off at the last moment due to some meeting he was going to with Alice. When the nurse called him back he looked at me like he was waiting for me to come with, so I got up and followed.

**Jpov**

Why in the hell did she look like she was going to stay there? She had to come back with me. If they were going to tell me my pecker was never going to work again, I was going to need someone who was handy with a weapon to put me out of my misery right away and since J.D. had bailed on me, Bella was my best bet. Things had been, for all intents and purposes, dead, down there. Nothing so much as a twitch since they had gone in and supposedly fixed things. Bella tried to convince me that the scar made things look all, "Cool and dashing", but to me it looked like someone had tried to chop the end of my dick off with a rusty chainsaw. I really hadn't tried to see if it worked, but then again, Bella hadn't shown any interest in checking things out either. I didn't know if she had changed her mind about me, or if she was just freaked out about how messed up my parts were now, but if I was going to be a eunuch for the rest of my life, I wanted her to be there with me when I found out.

**Bpov**

Watching him get changed into the gown I couldn't help sneaking a peek at him. He was still gorgeous and I don't know why he had been soo secretive about his body since he had gotten out of the hospital. I know he was pretty ripped up, but the doctors had done a pretty good job of fixing him. He hadn't let me touch him since he had been hurt, and it had been a long, lonely healing time for all of us. The guys swear I had been crankier that usual lately, and I probably had been, but could you blame me? I had him next to me in bed every night, but other than a little light making out, there had been nothing. Nada, no action at all. If I tried to take the action down South, he froze up and just about quit breathing. He said he didn't hurt or anything, but he damn sure wasn't showing any interest. I was beginning to worry that maybe he had finally come to his senses and realized that getting mixed up with me and my life was just too much for someone like him. I wanted to find out what the doc had to say and if the doc gave the all clear then we needed to have a talk about when we could get back to getting to it.

The nurse got his vitals and asked him questions about if he had experienced any erections. He told her that he hadn't and I know I looked at him funny. Did he not know? Every damn night for the last couple of weeks he had been at full salute when I had come in from work. I had been watching for it, as a sign that everything was up and running, and sure enough he had perked up and been standing proud for a couple weeks.

Uhh, excuse me. That's not true. You may not know it but you've had em just about every single night for the past couple of weeks.

He looked at me in shock, as the nurse wrote down what I had said.

"Why didn't you say something?" He looked offended I hadn't thought to tell him he had been getting boners at night.

Why would I tell you that you have been getting boners? I thought you knew. I just thought you weren't in the mood to share.

"Uh, No! I had no idea anything was going on. I had been worried that things weren't working at all." He looked really annoyed as he sat there staring down at his bits, as if he were willing them to stand up and salute him right then.

I'm sorry. I didn't know you weren't aware you were getting some pretty impressive erections at night. So impressive that I had considered taking advantage you but I didn't know if that would be okay.

"Why wouldn't that be okay? I thought you didn't want to try?"

Are you crazy? Ive about run this damn town out of Duracell waiting for you to perk up and show interest in me again!

The nurse was standing there looking back and forth at us as we bickered. We both seemed to realize that we had an audience at the same time and I know I flushed and he looked like he wanted to vanish into the floor.

She looked like she was doing her best not to laugh as she said, "The doctor will be right with you." and then she quickly left the room.

Jasper and I sat there looking at each other.

"I thought you didn't want me because im all scarred up and ugly now." He sat there slumped in his skimpy paper gown, his knobby knees slightly parted while he kicked his feet back and forth like a little kid. I stood up and walked over to him, rubbing a hand up and down his back as I placed a hand on his knee, sliding it up under the gown and beginning to trace small circles on the inside of his thigh.

Don't you know, Jasper, that for weeks I have done nothing but dream of doing the nastiest things to you? I even had gone out and bought some new lingerie to celebrate you getting all your stitches out. I had just been waiting for you to show some interest, but there was nothing. I had to lay there, every night, next to you seeing how hard you got, looking at your beautiful body and wanting to just climb on top of you and ride you until the world exploded, but I was afraid that wasn't what you wanted.

As I spoke, I had steadily been softly tracing circles on his thigh, and I had moved my other had from rubbing his back to playing with the curls on the back of his neck . His breath was getting ragged and his eyes became a little glazed as he said, " I didn't know, I was afraid you didn't want me anymore because of all that had gone on and how messed up I was now."

I was surprised a how dense he could be. Do you really think that I would go through everything we went through, just to toss you away? I know what all happened, I know you were drugged and its over and done with. I meant what I said. I slid my hand further up under the gown, finding that my efforts had paid off. He looked down and grinned, just as the doctor knocked and walked into the room.

I quickly stepped in front of Jasper, turning and shaking the doctors hand, distracting him with some inane questions to give Jasper time to calm down a little bit. When I felt his fingers tap on my hip, I knew I didn't need to run interference anymore and I stepped aside, allowing the doctor to finally step over and begin examining Jasper.

"So I guess you have discovered there is no problem with achieving an maintaining erections?" The doctor asked with a smirk that let us both know he wasn't fooled by my attempt to block him.

Jasper flushed, "No, apparently not."

The doc laughed and told him, "Its quite all right, you would not be the first to find out things were in working order at a less than convenient time. Just enjoy, and if there is any pain or any problem, contact me."

As Jas was getting dressed, I was on the phone to Cullen. Hey Cowboy, Can you be bribed? I could hear by the tone of his voice he knew what the news was and he was just aching to begin teasing Jasper, but he said, "It depends on what's on the table? Do I get to take him out for a spin? Maybe squall the tires and get it out of 4th gear? C'mon Swan, I promise I wont dent him or scratch the paint."

No, but you probably would leave weird stains in the seats. Jasper looked at me and made his, "Ewww!" face. He knew exactly what was being said. How about I take you and J.D. out to a nice dinner at your choice of nice places on my dime and you don't have to take me.

"Okay, Okay. Me or J.D. will be by to pick him up in about an hour, do you two think you could stay off of each other that long?"

I think that will be fine. We still have to collect him from preschool and that will give us time to give him a bath and get him a bag packed.

"Okay Swan, just remember, the boy has to hydrate! Hydrate! And if you need any tips on breaking him back in properl…" I hung up on him as Jasper rolled his eyes.

"He's never going to let me live that down, is he?" I patted him on his cute lil ass as he bent over to pick up his boots.

No, probably not. I wont either, but hey, it takes all kinds. Have you and your buddy talked about things since then?

"Nah, we mostly pretend it didn't happen. I don't remember it and he knows I was drugged. We have decided to kinda cool it with the playing around a little though."

Gee, ya think? Your fans seem to have taken it in stride. In face I was noticing that you seemed to have gained a whole bunch of followers on twitter and on your fan site."

He flushed bright red, "Yeah, apparently we are really huge with the gay population . Our album sales exploded and it looks like we will be adding a bunch of dates to the next tour. We even have a couple of companies talking about sponsoring our next tour."

Wow, Jas! That is great news. So does that mean you will be leaving again soon? The very thought of that made my heart clench with dread and pain.

"Not for a long time, and I have already told them that I wont do a straight through tour, it will be like one week on, one week off so I can be at home with my family, unless my family is with me."

Nice answer there young man. So tell me, I said as I pinned him up against the side of his truck in the parking lot of the doctors office, is it okay if I do this now? I asked as I ran my hand up his thigh and nipped at his neck. He groaned and put his arms around me pulling me tight to him, "Yes, Yes, Yes! Lets go get our boy and get him ready to visit his godfathers and then lets spend some time getting reacquainted with each other.

Arriving home, we gave Spence a bath and gathered him up a overnight bag of clothes and toys so he could hang out with the boys in style. He had his own room over there, and it was stuffed with toys and all manner of distractions, but I knew he would spend most of his time with those two chuckleheads probably being taught completely inappropriate things like he had been taught the last time when he came home waving with one finger and telling everyone, "Bye, Bye asshole!" I hoped everyday that those two would someday have a kid of their own so I could repay the favor. It seemed like no time passed and J.D. showed up at the door with a knowing smirk on his face. He bumped shoulders with Jasper on the way out and I know I heard him say, "Put the spurs to her", to which Jasper had answered, "You know it!"

I had to laugh, if anyone was gonna be getting spurred, it was him. He locked the door behind J.D. and turned around, an almost feral look crossing his face. I don't remember what was in my hands but it ended up on the floor somewhere along with my clothes. He had never really managed to take me up against the wall, but apparently he had been working out with J.D. enough that he had finally built up enough ass in his pants. We crashed from one wall in the hall way to the other, grunts and groans and growls that would have terrified a grizzly bear echoing down the hallway. He was in me and using those hips of his to work his magic as we both found out that there wasn't a damn thing wrong with his pecker. Neither of us was up for a marathon the first time around, and after the third crash into the wall, we both let out growls that seemed to come from the depths of our souls, and we sank to the floor.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but, uh…HOLY HELL!" Cullen was standing in the hallway, his jaw hanging open with Spence's bag in his hand. " In your hurry to terrify the neighborhood, you forgot to tell us if we are continuing with potty training and if so, where are his training pants?"

We gestured weakly towards Spence's room, "Top drawer, pull ups and yes we are still potty training. Quit looking at my mans ass you perv!" I slapped at Cullen's leg as he stepped over us on his way to the baby's room. Jasper lay on top of my, trying to give me a modicum of privacy as Cullen took his time, grinning down at him as he wandered into Spencer's room. "Soo, I take it that all is up and running well there? Good to know, good to know. I seem to remember someone telling me that he would be up for taking a walk on the wild side once he was better. Sooo…?"

Jasper was doing his best to keep me covered but also his bits and pieces as well. He seemed to come to some sort of a decision as he looked down at me and winked, "Well, hell! How about now? Lets do this thing. I have always wondered what J.D. saw in you so I guess its time to find out and see if you can walk all that big talk. Im warning you though, Im no bottom and Im not gonna be gentle and as my part of the deal, she gets to play too."

He started getting up and I figured ,What the hell? Might as well call his bluff once and for all, and he had seen my bits more than once, so… I stood up with Jasper and we began advancing on Cullen who had froze in the hallway, his eyes bulging and his jaw hanging open, mid smart ass comment as Jasper and I advanced on him, naked as the day we were born, sweaty from our tangle and reeking of sex. Just as Jasper reached out and began unbuttoning his shirt, Cullen looked down at him and said, " You know, maybe I ought call J.D. back in and lets get this really interesting. Alice can just drive my truck on home with the boy and we can make and evening of it." He reached into his pocket and got his phone. He started to punch up J.D.s. number as Jasper looked over at me in horror.

"Yeah, they are into it, why don't you send Alice on home with the boy and come on back in here? Yeah, bring the beer." Cullen ended the call and leaned up against the hallway wall as I scooted behind Jasper, who gave me a look as if to say, "Traitor!"

"Now there, young man…where were you? Oh yeah…I think you were doing this." He began unbuttoning his own shirt as we heard the front door open and close and then lock followed by the sounds of a pair of boots hitting the floor. I think I squeaked, I know Jasper did. I peeked around Jaspers shoulder to see J.D. padding towards us in his bare feet.

"So why is the party in the hallway? Don't ya'll have a bedroom?"

**PS. I have wanted to reply to reviews but FFN seems to be having fits again and I keep getting a,"Outdated link" error message. Hopefully they get the bugs sorted out soon. Thanks to everyone who lets me know what they think.**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N The review reply thingy is finally fixed so I will be able to get back to you. Thanks to all those who have stuck with me. This one is just about wrapped up. I hope you have enjoyed the ride. I know I have had a blast writing these characters.**

Bedroom? Damn right we had a bedroom and I was already backing towards it. I didn't know what the hell Jasper had talked himself into, but I was out. Those two chuckleheads were my best friends and there was no way in hell I was going to take our relationship to the next level. I had slid back along the wall til I had just about reached the door when a hand suddenly appeared on the wall next to my head and I looked up right into J.D.s grinning mug. Jasper was still standing in front of Cullen, who had shed his shirt completely and was suggestively running his fingers over Jaspers chest. J.D. stepped behind me and gently wrapped his arms around me, as if in a lovers embrace and he whispered against my neck, "We are just calling his bluff, don't worry."

I leaned back and managed to whisper to him, That's all well and good, but what if he doesn't bluff?

J.D. raised his eyebrow at that comment and shrugged, as he ducked his head against me and pretended to be kissing my neck in order to disguise his laughter.

"So how about it young man, lets take this rodeo to the bedroom why don't we?" Cullen was pushing it as far as he possibly could and I looked at Jasper as he stared, transfixed at not only Cullen, but at J.D, standing behind me. He swallowed hard, reached out and grabbed my hand and said, "Lets go then." as he pulled me into the bedroom. Cullen looked at J.D., shrugged and followed.

Jasper! What the hell! I whispered to him furiously. He grabbed me and kissed me furiously, pulling me tightly to him as he ran his hands up into my hair. He kissed his way to my neck as he whispered to me, "I am done being teased. I am going to call his bluff on this. Don't worry. I've got it handled." I looked him in the eyes and said, I have played poker with him for over 5 years, he doesn't bluff.

Then he finally looked a little nervous as he looked at Cullen who was sprawled back on my bed like he owned the damn place. J.D. was sitting at the foot of the bed and he extended his hand to me, grinned and shrugged as I kissed Jasper again. I hope like hell you know what you are doing because he will have you for lunch and then I will make hash out of the leftovers.

J.D. heard that and he was having a hard time not laughing as he wrapped me back in his arms, trying to give me a little bit of modesty as we prepared to watch the two stubborn knotheads in our lives have a battle of wills.

Jasper walked over and stood between Cullens knees. I had to give him credit, he was damn sure putting his acting skills to work because he looked like he was intent on putting his money,(or God knows what) where he mouth was.

"I said im no bottom and I meant that, so why are you laying there? You keep saying that I told that you could suck it, so ima thinking you need to be getting to it."

I was shocked, proud and more than a little turned on. He was standing there, buck naked, acting all in command and powerful while Cullen laid back with an arm behind his head and smirked up at him. J.D. was even doing his best to not choke to death while laughing into my hair. "Im soo fucking proud of him im gonna get a stiffy if he keeps on." he whispered in my ear.

I elbowed J.D. in the chest as I choked back a laugh.

Jasper stood there, defiantly, waiting on Cullen to make a move, and to my shock and apparently Jaspers, he did. Cullen suddenly sat up and put his hands behind Jaspers back, as if he was going to follow through on his threat to follow through on Jaspers earlier offer. You could have heard a pin drop as everyone in the room except Cullen, held their breath as he stood up and ran his hands up Jaspers sides. " So you are ready for me to follow through? Well I guess I will just have to do that. Do you mind if I get some help over here?" He reached out for J.D., and grinned as Jaspers eyes about popped out of his head.

"That wasn't part of the deal, its just you and me, so lets get this over with." Jaspers voice kind of squeaked toward the end and I figured he was going to be the first to blink, but then he stepped towards Cullen again and said, " Why are you stalling around? You have been gigging me about this since you've known me, so lets do it. Im done being teased. Who's all talk and no action now, Cullen?" Jasper was getting a good rant going and I think it was more fear that he had backed himself into a corner than anything else, J.D. and I were sitting on the end of the bed, trying not to fall off the end of it, laughing, as I wished they would just get it over with and call, " bluff" so Jasper and I could get back to getting back to it. When all of the sudden, mid rant, Cullen grabbed Jasper and wrapping one huge paw around the back of his head and one around his back, he bent over and laid a kiss on him like you would see in a movie.

"Whoa…" It went on for at least a minute as a first Jasper tried to push Cullen off, but then he seemed to just quit fighting. J.D. and I were both staring.

J.D. if you try to kiss me I am going to kick your ass. I said quietly as we watched. He shifted behind me and whispered, "I may not try to kiss you, but if this goes on much longer I may need to do something else." I elbowed him in the chest. Cullen finally let Jasper go and he turned and looked at J.D., "You were right, its not the same. Hey Bella, can we borrow your car, Alice took the truck home, so unless you want us to stay…"

Key are on the counter, lock up behind you and please put a damn shirt on before you go out the front door!

Cullen walked over and caught J.D.s hand and drew him up into the same kind of kiss that was even hotter to watch. When they finally broke apart Cullen smirked at Jasper, "That's better. See you guys later, have fun monkey boy. Don't think about me too much."

They walked out of the bedroom, laughing, shutting the door behind them as I walked over to a slightly stunned looking Jasper, who was still standing in the same place he had been when Cullen let him go.

**Jpov**

I was done with him teasing me. For once and for all I was gonna put a stop to it and call his bluff about wanting to put it to me. I knew he was in love with J.D, and that he wouldn't cheat, but I had no idea they would be into such ….things. Id been offered some pretty wild shit when I was on the road with the band, times being what they were, and the lifestyle being what it was and groupies being what they were, but a foursome? Where three of them are guys? Yeah…I was not feeling that at all. I was just hoping he was bluffing. I was hoping that if I acted as if I wasn't scared and that I was going to actually follow through he would blink and that would be that, but when Bella told me he didn't bluff…oh shit. I was doing my best to put all my acting skills to work, and I figured if it got down to IT, either Bella or J.D would step in and put a stop to things before they went too far, though from the looks of things they were both kinda enjoying themselves! I was starting to get more than a little freaked out and angry when he grabbed me. I aint saying I aint never been kissed by another man. I am an actor and times being what they are, rock bands being what they are, and there was that time that we all ended up in that stairwell drunk and buzzing off of God knows what, but we vowed to never speak of that and we did out best to forget about it, and we would have if not for that one picture that surfaced on the Interwebz from time to time, but I aint never been kissed by another man like that! I will carry this to the grave, but at the end there, I had to start thinking about all the horrible things Bella would do to me just so things didn't get, uh…interesting? Damn.

**Bpov**

The look on his face. It was priceless. I was a little skeeved out Cullen had kissed him so damn thoroughly, but I figured, 'What the hell?' We were all pack and it wasn't like he had his mouth…okay! Time for a different train of thought. I walked over to my boy and put my arms around him.

Feeling violated, sugar britches?

The flushed look on his face led me to believe he was feeling a little more than violated, and that shit was kinda funny and interesting all at the same time. I guess I was going to have to pay up on Cullens bet with me about that whole, 'tree swinging' theory he had.

I led him on over to the bed and dragged him down into the covers where I planned to spend the rest of the night reminding him that my side of that tree was where he better be swinging from.

I'm being poked in the back by what I know isn't his finger and I can feel him smiling against the back of my neck.

Good lord boy, don't you need to hydrate or refuel or something? He started laughing and that was more than just a little distracting. It felt like we had just gone to sleep and he was already up and ready to go again? I was secretly pleased, after all, it had been a long, lonely peckerless drought around here while he was healing up, but I didn't want him to wear it out in one night.

We decided to take advantage of child free time we had been given and we relived the first time we met, sans the back seat and the felony flopping on the ground. He was in fine form and truth was so was I. We had cleared the air about how we felt about each other, and it had changed things a little, but not in any bad ways. He still knew I had to have my space and my independence, and I tried to relax a little and just enjoy that endless craziness that was him. He and J.D. went shooting quite a bit and we all hit the gym on a daily basis, so we were staying in shape and keeping the stress levels low.

Alice had moved in with J.D. and Cullen and they had formed a close knit family that rivaled our own. Alice was a welcome addition to the clan and she kept the testosterone of those two dialed down a little and made them behave at times when I suspected it would have been very much savage and cavemanlike. She adored Spence and vice versa and more than once I saw her looking at him with longing in her eyes.

So when are you going to have one? I knew it was crass to ask, but I figured we had been through enough together that she would either answer me or tell me to piss off.

"It takes two to make one of those and I haven't found the other one to help with that effort. Im not much of a dater and men, other than my boys, just tend to piss me off, so I don't think there is one in my future."

A light bulb went on in my head, and while it was a yellow, smudged and fly-specked light bulb, it gleamed with a brilliant idea. Im not one to beat around the bush so I just threw it out there, You love Edward and J.D. don't you? So why don't you have a kid with them? I am sure they would be up for it, one way or the other.

She looked at me in shock, her mouth hanging open. "Are you serious?"

Those guys are fantastic father figures. They took to helping me with the baby from day one, in fact when I was pregnant they were my birth coaches and they were in the delivery room. Before Jasper found out, J.D. was going to step up and claim Spence as his.

She sat there sipping her beer, looking at the boys soaking in the hot tub. "They are gorgeous, too, aren't they?"

Yeah, other than the one I got, you couldn't ask for better. Talk to them. Im willing to bet they would be thrilled. I know they have talked about trying to adopt, but its hard for a gay couple and with J.D.s history , it gets complicated. They love you and they would love the baby, so it would be pretty much a perfect family, albeit a little larger than usual. She laughed, " I say I don't want one man and here I am talking about creating a new life with two of them."


	18. Chapter 18

Dammit! Of all the times for my cell phone to go off, right in the middle of 7lbs of pressure on a 9lb trigger pull while the cold damn rain was dripping down the back of my neck was not the best of times. This moron holding himself at gunpoint about got his wish of suicide by cop. Managing to answer my phone while listening to my headset, keeping my eye on the moron, and my finger pressure at the right amount on the trigger, was a trick, but I managed it. "Yeah, J.D.? This better be good. Oh no shit! Fuck! I am on a call out, you are going to have to go with the back up plan and I will be there as soon as we clear this scene. Call Jess and tell her to watch Spence for him and he should be ready to go in no time. And J.D.? Congratulations man, Love you guys."

Holy shit! I was going to miss the birth of my Godsons if this asshole didn't commit one way or the other pretty quick. It had taken forever for everything to get ironed out so those guys could become parents with Alice as the mom, and once all the legalities had been ironed out so that they all had rights and protections, and the medical stuff had been sorted and then the eggs fertilized and all that weirdness handled, Alice had gotten big as a house with twin boys in a pregnancy that had stressed us all more than a little. She had been on strict bed rest for the last couple of months and J.D. and Cullen had catered to her every whim. I don't know how she didn't got crazy from being hovered over constantly, but she seemed to just be mellow all the time.

Jasper had finally gone on another brief tour with his band, but J.D. had gone along with him, much to the amusement of the band mates, who tried to coax them into appearing onstage together, but J.D. was along just for the fun and as security and to get a break from all the stress of the pregnancy hormones floating around in the house. He still had days when he needed a break from all the anxiety that would build up and he and Jasper would take off and go shooting or whatever boy stuff they did, and it seemed to keep both of them grounded and calm. We were closer since our experience together, and I truly considered him just as much my family as my own flesh and blood.

Jasper had scored major points with Jess when he had volunteered to be her, 'Date" to her Sr. Prom, and drove her in his Hummer. He was recognized by more than a few excitable teens who of course snapped cell phone pictures and video of him at the prom, and then promptly uploaded it to you tube, but once he came forward and spilled the beans about everything, it actually seemed to work out well for him. His fans were loyal and protective of him for the most part, with a few lapses who had been outed and castigated all over the web to the point of going underground and hiding, so we had largely been left along. I don't know if it had to do with the fact he was always surrounded by cops or we had moved over to a house in Cullen's neighborhood that was well hidden, but we enjoyed being able to walk over to each others houses and Spence was able to run from his Godfathers house to our porch in less than a minute with his pup on his heels.

"C'mon Sparky! Either shit or get off the pot!" This asshole was pissing me off. He is marching around in his house, a gun to his own damn head, throwing things out the window and yelling and generally showboating for the benefit of his girlfriend who had decided to finally leave him after getting smacked for the umpteeeth time after not bringing home enough money to cover the rent and his beer habit. She had opted to pay the rent and after he had smacked her in the face, she had called us to have him arrested. Two new boots had arrived to handle it because he was a frequent flyer and a runty little bastard that had never been a problem to arrest , but he had found a gun somewhere and when the cops had gone to cuff him, he had wriggled loose and had run to the bedroom and grabbed it. Girlfriend and rookies had bailed out the front door while dumbass has barricaded himself inside. Soo, here we sat, 4 hours later, surrounding neighbors evacuated and stuck either sitting in restaurants waiting or with the Red Cross, cheering me on to shoot him as he yelled out the window and got all the attention mommy never gave him.

"Can we just teargas this fucker now? It will air out soon enough." I had asked that question 2 hours earlier when this bullshit had started, but the I.C. on the scene was a p.c., candy assed, touchy feely asshole who believed everyone just needed a hug and a puppy or some bullshit and he thought he could talk him down. The response of "Negative, maintain position, do not fire" came promptly from the 2nd who was beginning to sound just as irritated as I felt. The rain had been relentless, it was bone-chillingly cold and we were all tired and fed up with this punk ass. The media vultures were even beginning to lose interest and one of the big trucks started pulling away. I snorted to myself and thought that there must be something major going down, like a protest at Pioneer Square or a new recycling event that was more important than this dumbass. I had no more than though that than the word came though the ear piece that the I.C. was going to approach with a pizza in an attempt to make contact. "Hold positions and be on alert."

I watched though the scope as the I.C. approached. He was wearing a suit and carrying a cheap pizza from one of the local fast food joints I halfway hoped food poisoning would force the punk ass out in short order. I could see that the I.C. was yelling something at the punk who was yelling back out the open door, I had the perfect shot and could have dropped him with no problem, but I waited per orders as the palaver went down. They talked back and forth as the rain pounded down on all of us, and then the punk began to raise the gun. 'Stand by, Stand by! Position one do you have the shot?" I responded "Affirmative" as they checked with the second position team and received the same response. I had only shot one other person and he had survived. It wasn't a fun thing to have to do, but when lives where in danger, it was no different than anything else to me.

"Team 2 take the shot, Team 2 take the shot, Team 1 stand by" Outstanding. I was off the hook for the after shot paperwork, but as the shot rang out and the moron dropped, I knew we were going to be bound up with clearing the scene for a few more hours. The strike team moved in to subdue the moron who was still alive and screaming his head off over his injured arm, (I foresee much range time in Team 2's future for that botched shot), and within a few minutes he was packaged and shipped off to OHSU for treatment on the county's dime.

"Lt. Swan, you need to pack up and clear right away. Your report can be posted later, you are needed elsewhere per Captain Cullen's orders." Ahh, rank did have its privileges, and I was glad I had been carrying a bag with spare clothes in my car for weeks just in case I had a situation to deal with. I was soaked to the bone and my boots were squishing as I walked to my patrol unit. I broke down my rifle, gave it a quick wipe down to get the worst of the rain off of it and then receiving another text from J.D. that was tersely worded, "7cm, Been called Bastard, mofo and worse, HURRY" I knew I better step on it. I didn't even bother to change, I threw the bag of dry clothes on the seat beside me and hauled ass.

Cullen was pacing in the hallway like a lion with zoo psychosis as I squished up the hallway at a trot. " Its about damn time! They gave her the epidural, but she is still really uncomfortable and J.D. and Jasper are doing their best to remind her of her breathing exercises, but she is too busy cussing everyone. They are worried that the babies are in some weird position and if they don't turn just right pretty soon, they are going to have to do a c-section on her. I cant go through that again, I about passed out the last damn time. I need a cigarette!" He had a good rant going on and I had to laugh at him, "Listen Cowboy, I am going to go in and change out of these wet clothes, you can take them down to my truck and use that as your excuse to go have a smoke, but you are supposed to have quit by now, and you better just chew one of your pieces of gum or something before J.D. kicks your ass, but get yourself some air while we get things calmed down. In just a little bit you are going to be a daddy, and then the stress really begins."

He stopped pacing for a moment. "How the hell did I get talked into this? I am not ready to be a father. I never expected to be a father. I'm going to suck as a father. I'm too selfish! What if they hate me? What if I drop one of them? What if I am like my father?"

Oh he was really getting a good freak out going on, I could see it coming a mile away. "Edward? You have the love and support of your entire extended and weird family to help you out. You never dropped Spence and he is doing quite well. J.D. will keep you in line, and if Jasper can do it, you know you can do it. Alice isn't going to let you screw this up. Now, can I please go in there and change my clothes? I am freezing my ass off and dripping all over the floor and if I miss the birth of these boys, Alice will kill me."

"Oh shit, you are right! Yeah, yeah, yeah…we better…yeah, c'mon." I pushed past him into the room where I was greeted by a chorus of, "Its about damn time!"

They all were trying to bail on us at once, all except Alice that is, she's going nowhere. Jasper wanted the heck out of Dodge and J.D. was just pacing nearly as bad as Cullen who had disappeared with my bag of wet clothes 20 minutes ago and had yet to return. The doc had come in and checked her and found she was at 8cm and things were starting to happen pretty quickly, with nurses moving in and out of the room and equipment being brought in as men tried to slip out and hide, but I threatened to cuff them to the side rails at the ends of the bed if they kept it up and they settled down and sat in chairs next to her head obediently rubbing her shoulders and talking to her. J.D. was the calmest since he had been through it before, while Jasper looked like he was going to pull a runner the minute my back turned. "Don't even think about it, Jasper. You promised her you would be here, and guess what? You are here."

He went a little pale as an ominous noise echoed through the room. "What the hell was that?" Him and J.D. both asked. Alice groaned and tried to shift her position on the bed as the nurses began lowering the head of it and pulling the ends of it off in preparation for putting the delivery assembly in place. "Oh don't worry about that, boys, that was just the babies pushing down on her bowels as they move further into the birth canal, sometimes that happens, birth is a messy thing, but don't worry, we will clean it up so it doesn't get on the babies." The door had been slightly ajar as she said this and I saw it start to close again as both Jasper and J.D. paled and began moving towards it. 'Cullen! Get your ass in here before I neuter your boyfriend and then come after you. Jasper, SIT! Now! Alice, grab a hand and hang on to them, I'm going after Captain chicken."

They obediently surrendered a hand each to the vise grip that was Alice in pain and I went after Cullen before he could get too far. He was across the hall leaned up against the wall with a look of horror on his face. " Bella, I cant do it. I cannot do it. I swear to God I will pass out and hit the floor. I can handle a lot of things, I have handled a lot of things. I mean when J.D. got hurt all those times, I took care of him and I have handled Spence and all his grossness, but this above and beyond, being in the delivery room with you about did me in."

Poor guy, he really was freaking the hell out. I had no idea what had caused him to become so marshmallow like so quickly, but now was not the time to be sorting all that out. "Listen Cowboy, how about this? You hang out near her head. Just look in her face and talk to her the whole time. Don't look down and don't look in the mirror and you will be fine. I will be right there near by, okay? Don't you want to be there to hear your sons first cries? You know you do. If you don't want to cut the cords or anything, J.D. will handle that, just like he did when Spencer was born, so you will be just fine. But if you don't go in there and be there for them, you will always regret it and wish you had been. C'mon I've got you." I got ahold of you." We went back in and he didn't look at anyplace other than the wall over Alice's head.

"Nice of you to finally join us." Alice snarked at him. "Unnnnnnghhhh ohhhh DAAAMMNNN here comes another one! I swear to God that fucking epidural is NOT working you BASTARD!" Another contraction hit and I tried to not laugh as the poor bastards with their hands in Alice's cringed and whimpered.

"Okay hun! Who is ready to have a couple of babies? On the next one I want you to give me a really good push and we will get this first little fella out here to meet his family." The doc was annoyingly chipper, just like she was when she had delivered Spence, and she blissfully ignored the glares coming from Alice as she had ignored glares from women probably her entire career.

"Okay, one more good push and he will be here! Look at that beautiful head of hair! Oh my goodness! Annnd here we are! Just look at him, what a beautiful baby boy! Who is cutting the cord?" Much to my surprise, J.D. nodded to Jasper, who with tears in his eyes and a big smile on his face, reached forward and cut the cord that bound what had to be J.D.s son to Alice. He was quickly swept away by the nurses who began measuring and cleaning him up as the doc encouraged an exhausted Alice to begin working towards getting the second baby born.

'C'mon hun, you are halfway there. You have had one beautiful baby boy and his brother is just chomping at the bit, ready to come out and meet us all." J. D. was going with the sweet talk and it seemed help her gather her reserves as Edward put his arms under her and supported her, as he told her, " Al, have I told you today how much we love you and how much we appreciate you? You are so brave and fierce and I am so glad you are our sons mother and our woman. We love you and we will always take care of you and love you, now lets get him out of you so we can get to spoiling all of you like you deserve to be spoiled." He kissed the side of her face and stroked her sweaty hair back out of her eyes as she began pushing again and in no time at all, his son joined the world, just as loud and demanding as his father. He and J.D. cut the cord together and then hugged each other and Alice.

"They are soo damn cute, aren't they?" Cullen was standing at the window of the nursery, staring at the babies an hour later as the nurses fussed over them and wrapped them up in preparation for taking them back to the room to see their exhausted mom. "Ehh, you've seen one baby you have seen them all." He snorted at me and muttered, 'Bullshit! I have it on good authority that my son is pretty damn awesome." We stood there looking in the window until the nurse came out and said they were about ready to take them down and we could follow along with, then we went back to find that Jasper was passed out in the chair by the window, sound asleep and J.D. was sitting next to Alice's bed with his head down on the bed, also sound asleep. The one person in the room who should have been asleep was staring at them both as she absentmindedly stroked the loose curls on the back of J.D.'s head.

She smiled at us as we walked in with the babies following behind in their bassinette, pushed by a nurse. 'There are my other boys. Well, what are the stats on them besides ginormous and freaking huge?" It was funny, they went exactly opposite we had expected them to go, the small one we figured was J.D.s son due to the blonde wavy hair, was actually the bigger of the two fraternal twins, at 6lbs and 19.5 inches, while the dark haired, ruddy skinned boy was 5lbs 12oz and a flat 19 inches. They both had everything they were supposed to have and everything indicated that they were healthy and would be ready to go home in a day or so, as for the rest of them? Who knew when they would be ready to go, but I was taking mine big boy home and tucking him in so the new family could spend some time getting used to the idea that things had really changed forever, for the better.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N So here is the end of the adventures with this particular crew. I just have the feeling that this story has run its course and while the characters have been amongst my favorite to write, and I will miss them, life has moved on. To all my faithful readers who stuck with me and reviewed and commented as well as called me on any mistakes I made, I give a huge THANK YOU! And I hope to see you,(if I haven't already), in my newest writings. This story, like all of my others, are written with love, affection and with no desire to piss anyone off with any incidental resemblances. My muse, my inspiration and my dedication all are found on the same path to the sunshine.**

So here we are, a lot further down the road from where we started in the alley of that grungy little dive bar and all our lives have changed so dramatically that I hardly recognize mine some days. I know he hardly recognizes his, but I actually think he kinda likes it.

The kids…wow. They are growing so fast and so much the images of their fathers. The amount of testosterone flowing around the houses some days is enough to force me and Alice out to the mall just to affirm we are still sort of girly.

We ended up buying a large place out in the country near Damascus just to give the kids room to roam and ourselves some space from everyone around us. Even in a liberal city like Portland, 3 men, two women with 3 kids got some raised eyebrows. We had no intention of explaining to anyone what the hell was going on, it wasn't anyone's business who belonged to who or lived with who, and as long as the kids were happy and well adjusted, that was all that mattered to any of us, but we all knew.

Ugh…he's snoring again. It does no good to kick him or to try to roll him over, he will just wake up enough to want something else and then I will never get any sleep. That is the one really great fringe benefit of a younger man, the fact that he is not only pretty much always ready and willing, he's always able.

He wanders off every now and then and I don't worry about it because I tend to encourage it. He gets to thinking that I need to step down from the SWAT team or I need to not work the narco detail or he begins to think that he has some right to tell me how to run my career and I remind him that he's not my boss or my father or my husband and he wont ever be. Yeah…I said it, I wont ever marry. Never. Don't, wont and I warned him if he had a problem with that then we should just draft the legal documents and part company quick. We had a pretty loud discussion about it in the back yard with J.D. as a referee, and he took a runner for a week over it with Cullen along for the ride oddly enough, but when he came back we made out peace and moved on from there.

He knows I love him, hell, its hard not to. Neither of us are perfect, and we both realize that, but we have the love of our boy and the love our friends and extended, crazy family that keep us grounded in reality. The past few years have been wonderful and crazy and intense, and tomorrow as the baby goes off to his first day of school, its just going to get even more so.

Hell, maybe I will wake him up…be nice to walk into that kindergarten class with him on my arm looking all rumpled and tired for all the right reasons.


End file.
